SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Fire Department showed their impressive basketball moves to visiting Estonian players during a friendly basketball game aimed at promoting camaraderie between local players and foreign nationals last January 10 at the Subic Bay Freeport Gym.
The Fire Department started the game with an 8-0 run to stun the taller Estonian players, and then maintained the lead all throughout the game.
In the end, the local dribblers won against the Estonians, 69-51.
Gina Prohorrov, who arranged the game, said that this friendly match can also serve as a way to promote Subic Bay as a tourist destination.
Prohorrov said that she and her husband, who owns a travel agency, always bring tourists to Subic.
“We are inviting more people to come to the Philippines, and since Palawan is now among the seven wonders of the world, a lot of Europeans are coming over to the Philippines.
So we always make it a point to make them pass by Subic to promote the place before they go down to Palawan,” she said.
“All these people will go back home and try to sell Subic, and then we will have more people coming over,” she added.
The Estonian team consisted of six players who are visiting the country with their wives. They have traveled all over the world and have played goodwill games in other countries.
“This group, they are really fond of playing with different nationalities, and they said they really wanted to play with Filipinos,” Prohorrov said.
“They know that Filipinos love basketball and they want to experience playing with Filipinos.”
The Estonians were the fourth batch of visiting tourists who had a friendly match with local players in this free port.