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Are you ready to rumble? Sarangani is pulling out all the
stops to make sure your off-road adventures deliver a
knockout of a holiday. Story & photos by Edgar Alan Zeta Yap
Sensational
Sarangani
BY SOME STROKE
of luck, a lunch
invitation with Manny Pacquiao dropped
onto our laps as soon as we arrived
in the seaside town of Glan, where
the world boxing icon spent his early
childhood.
It’s not every day that one gets a
chance to meet the boxing champ so
we jumped at the chance to meet the
man for whom traffic literally disappears
whenever he takes to the ring. “Manny
is nice, lovable and very
simpático
—
you should meet him!” says resident
Luz Margarita Ruiz-Yu, segueing from
an intriguing preview of antiques
salvaged from the Ruiz ancestral house.
True enough, my friends and I found
ourselves the following day in a crowded
gymnasium, rubbing elbows onstage
with the friendly “Pambansang Kamao”
(National Fist).
The heavyweight VIP is now out
to champion tourism in the relatively
obscure province of Sarangani. Halved
by General Santos City and Sarangani
Bay, the southernmost province
of mainland Mindanao covers two
separate frontiers, much like a pair
of boxing gloves. And, whether one
pursues relaxation or recreation, the
“Fightin’ Province of Sarangani” — as
one foreign sports blogger dubbed it —
delivers a one-two punch.
09LKH Smile
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