not business-to-business-to-bankruptcy wehehe ;).
the successful Filipino ascent to Mt. Everest is something that swells national pride in the same way as when Manny Pacquiao KO’ed Erik Morales a few months ago.
Friday, May 19 at about 1:20PM Manila time, Romi Garduce has added yet another accomplishment to his impressive resume: reaching the summit of Mt. Everest. this capped a weeklong attempt for our pinoy mountaineers making it a triple-treat. no other than Sir Edmund Hillary himself of New Zealand, the second man (technically, yes. i'll tell you more about this later) to climb the top of the world's highest mountain, conveyed his congratulatory remarks to all three for their historical feat:
“I have nothing but the greatest respect for the [Filipino] expedition, for the determination and the will to battle on and go to the summit,” Hillary, now 87, said in an interview yesterday with GMA 7.
“My heartiest congratulations to Leo, Romi and Erwin for their success in getting to the top. Very good luck to them. They must have been strong and determined,” he said.
ayus diba? i'm proud to be pinoy!
i did a bit of research and lots of reading and realized that Romi indeed is the Philippines' most accomplished mountaineer. he has scaled many mountains from before including Aconcagua in South America, Kilimanjaro in Africa, Elbrus in Russia and Cho-Oyu in the Himalayan range - all peaks ranging from 18,500 and above. to date he has already scaled four of the Seven Summits, or the highest peaks in each continent. mountaineers who have scaled all seven are considered world-class. as if that was still not enough of an impression, Garduce has climbed and trekked on 15 other mountain ranges around the world - a feat unmatched by any other Filipino mountaineer. way to go idol!
as i had blogged the other day, ABS-CBN again (well, there’s nothing new about this) ignored the achievement Romi has achieved yesterday. while GMA-7 openly congratulated, acknowledged and even covered the ascent of Oracion and Emata, both backed-up by their rival network, EBS-CBN (pronounced as ebs-C-B-N) didn’t even lift a finger to cover or at least announce Romi’s achievement. as pinoy rickey has put it in his blog, shameless. are they afraid their sponsors would cut a portion of the profit when Romi’s recent accomplishment, let alone his face on TV, appear on their obviously biased news program? i expect, at the least, from them the modesty of not trying to brag as if they were responsible for the First Philippine Mt. Everest Expedition (FPMEE) team’s feat. wala naman silang ginawa gaano kundi mag-kober lang nung event. they only served as the media. simply put, a means of communicating widely to the public what has transpired on a particular event. quoting pinoy rickey, “This is similar to how ABS-CBN and Gloria tried to capitalize on Manny Pacquiao as if they were responsible for his win.” come on, balanced and un-biased news programming, will yah?
touching base with a little bit of history and trivia, did you know that on May 29, 1953, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and his Nepalese Sherpa, Tenzing Norgay, made the first successful attempt to scale the roof of the world. unlike what we have seen the last week, there were no TV networks that covered that event. thus, no biased reporting. no satellite phones yet. totally no communication. the news was suppressed for another four days to add spice to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (since New Zealand is a British colony). kung mataas ang iyong IQ, o cge pwede na rin kahit katamtaman lang, maitatanong mo sa sarili mo kung sino ba sa kanilang dalawa ang talagang nauna? just like the recent claim of a fourth Filipino climber, Dale Abenojar, who said through his wife that he actually made it first before Leo Oracion did. when you ask Mr. Google, Hillary who headed the expedition naturally claimed to be first but technically it was his guide, Tenzing, who presumably went ahead, set up the ropes and pulled Sir Edmund up, ought to get the credit. but when asked the same question, Tenzing in characteristic Asian politeness answered that they ascended “as a team.” thus, Hillary had to wait till Tenzing’s death in 1986 to restate the claim that he was the first.
so what does it have to do with us pinoys? aside from the fact that they have proved that it was humanly possible to reach the top of Mt. Everest some 50+ years ago, did you know that Tenzing’s daughter Nima actually lived in the Philippines. like her famous father she eventually became an accomplished mountaineer herself yet when love called she married the least athletic of persons in the late graphic artist and book designer Noli Galang. di ko alam kung saan sila ikinasal but it was Prince Peter of Greece who took the role of giving her hand to her Filipino husband when she got married since her father was not around. something that we can grin and be proud about. iba talaga ang bangis ng pinoy tsk tsk ;p.
see, a little more research could have added a little more spice to last week’s events. it’s sad nobody among the newsroom people knew this bit of info..
tulog na ulit. tapos na ang Walang Tulugan with Master Showman ;).
