“I am confident we will go home champions at least in archery,” Aeta Jun Ablong, 34, told Punto! in an interview, as he, in traditional G-string he would don during the internatiohal compatitions, held the crude bow and arrow he would use during the tribal “olympics.”
Ablong and friend Aeta Dumlao Naval, 45, were the archery champions in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Tribal Games held in Malaysia in 2010. They also hold the record as national archery champions in competitions held in the recent years in Bataan and the Mountain Province.
Guy Hilbero, tourism officer of Mabalacat City and founder of the Mabalacat Aeta Tribal Association (MATA), said Naval and Ablong and eight other tribal members in the Philippine delegation, will fly to Brazil on Sunday night, two days before the Brazil tribal olympics starts to enable them to “acclimatize” in the venue. The games will last up to Nov. 1.
In a letter dated last Sept. 29 to the Embassy of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Department of Foreign Affairs submitted the names of the tribal athletes to represent the Philippines in the First World Games of Indigenous Peoples.
Aside from Naval and Ablong, the eight other athletes include Igorots Jason Balabal, Mark Sumalag, Elvis Julius, and Erlyn Balabal; Dumagats Marlon Luna and Ricardo Turgo, and; Mangyan Jerry Manalo.
The delegation would be headed by retired Col. Antonio Tamayo Jr., chairman of the sports for all and environmental committees of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC).
Hilbero said there will be 11 events in the Brazil “olympics” , but the Philippine delegation will participate only in archery, spear toss, tug of war, 100-meter barefoot race, wrestling, and swimming. Naval and Ablong will participate in archery, spear toss, and barefoot race.
Hilbero said the tribal athletes will get a daily allowance of $60 on top of paid expenses for their travel and stay in Brazil. All the delegates trained recently in Tanay, Rizal where they got a daily P1,000 allowance.
He said the organizers of the Brazil games have yet to reveal prizes for the winning athletes.
But Ablong and Naval expressed hopes that the prizes will include some cash to provide them capital for farming in their ancestral domain on the slopes of Mt. Pinatubo straddling the western boundaries of this freeport.
Hilbero said the atheletes are slated to receive from the POC half of their $60 daily allowance which they plan to leave for the needs of their families during the Brazil games.
“We also pray that victory there would lead to more assistance from Malacacang so that we can have more capital for more productive farming,” Naval said.
