HEROES WALL OF FAME

October 23, 2021 Metro BLISTT

“Heroes Wall of Fame mural work starts after Oct. 19 launching.”
The new phase of the Heroes: Wall of Fame mural painting is about to start after its formal launching Tuesday. Baguio Rep. Marques Go and three city councilors vowed to support the project that has so far has 14 faces and 32 upcoming athletes and sports leaders.
Councilor Maylen Yaranon said the marriage of sports and arts is realized in the Heroes project as she hoped that empty walls within the seven hectare sports complex will have faces of excelling athletes to inspire active athletes and motivate young and aspiring athletes.
Councilor Betty LourdesTabanda vowed that the city council, where she seeks her third of her three full terms as a member, will support arts within the athletic bowl. Repairs on the six of the 11 walls were completed Thursday that will allow Gladys Labsan to finish her work there.
Labsan has already painted six athletes on said walls which started with Hector Begeo, a three time Olympian for athletics. It has the faces of two time Olympian Jerry Dino (judo), Erlinda Lavandia (athletics), Rey Tam (professional boxing) and current athletes Divine Wally (wushu sanda) and Jeordan Dominguez (taekwondo poomsae).
Labsan will then paint 12 of the 32 athletes and sports personalities namely former World Boxing Association junior welterweight king Roberto Cruz, 2008 Beijing Olympics bronze medal winners for wushu sanda Mariane Mariano and Benjie Rivera.
The walls will also have former three time world karate champion Julian Pursen Chees, former two time Southeast Asian Games marathon queen Christabel Martes.
Said walls, measuring at least seven feet by 14 feet will also have Jearome Calica winner of gold medals in the 2001 and 2019 SEAG in wushu sanda and muay Thai waikru, respectively.
It will also contain the faces of bodybuilding greats Simeon “Sammy” Ayochok, a five time Mr. Asia, and Nemesio “Nick” Domalsin, who was known as the Baguio strongman and patriarch of a family of bodybuilders.
University of Baguio founder Fernando Bautista, Sr. leads three other sports leaders in the 12 murals Labsan will paint. Bautista is known to have helped many athletes by not only giving extra funds but also shoes to athletes from UB among them Begeo, and has opened the doors of the school for national athletes where they get education for free.
Former Gintong Alay camp director and former councilor Narciso Padilla, who authored the athletes’ incentive ordinance, will join the Bautista patriarch in one of the walls.
Also to be painted is former Baguio Colleges Foundation (University of the Cordilleras) athletic director Pedro Mendoza, who was also the Philippine Track and Field Association director for Cordillera and the Philippine Volleyball Federation president. He was instrumental in making volleyball the most popular sport in the country after basketball.
He will be joined on the same wall by Wushu Federation of the Philippines – Baguio Cordillera president and former movie actor Tony Candelaria whose wushu team is one of the most decorated in the country.
Among his athletes are Team Lakay founder Mark Sangiao (2001 SEAG gold), three time SEAG winner and former ONE lightweight champion Eduard Folayang, former ONE flyweight king Geje Eustaquio, ONE straw weight champion Joshua Pacio and former ONE bantamweight king Kevin Belingon, among others.
Mendoza and Candelaria will occupy one wall in the same way that the two actually worked hand in hand in making the sport of wushu popular with the athletes including Rivera, Wally and most of the wushu taolu players of UC alums and current students, as well as the Team Lakay stable.
Team Lakay’s Harold Banario, whose contract with the Brave Fighting Championship ended at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic last year, will lend his painting skills when he will do the fasces of 10 athletes from the martial arts.
Former SEAG gold medal winner and Team Lakay fighter Mark Eddiva will join former team mate and Baguio City High School teacher Rhea Rifani (2005 SEAG gold) on the wall near the sports development office.
They will be joined by Jean Claude Saclag, winner of a gold medal in the 2019 SEAG for kickboxing and previously as a wushu sanda player, a silver medalist in the Asian Games and gold in the medal winner World Cup of Wushu Sanda.
Three judo players, two karate practitioners and an amateur boxer will also be featured on Sacalg’s wall.
These are Helen Dawa, now with the Philippine sambo team and cousins Sharon Kaybelle and Roland Dino, niece and nephew, respectively, of the late Jerry Dino. Karate fifth dan master Edgar Kapawen and former SEAG gold medal winner Rey Hilario will be painted on the wall.
Alice Kate Aparri, winner of three SEAG gold medals (2005, 2009 and 2011) and 2007 SEAG silver, as well as holder of bronze medals in the Asian Championships (2001, 2010 and 2012) and two world championships (2006 and 2010) will be one of the subjects of Banario.