 |
| Gilas Pilipinas national men's basketball team (Image Source: Smart Communications) |
PLDT Chief Revenue Officer and Smart Communications President and Chief Executive Officer Alfredo Panlilio has been a huge advocate of the Philippine sports scene as the president of the MVP Sports Foundation. He is also at the forefront of Philippine basketball as the president of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) and the governor of Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) team Meralco Bolts. Now he has donned a new hat as the First Vice President of the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC).
Panlilio is set to start his new term on January 1, 2021 together with other elected officers of the POC including Chairman Stephen Hontiveros, President Abraham Tolentino, 2nd Vice-President Richard Gomez, Auditor Chito Loyzaga and Treasurer Cynthia Carrion as well as executive board members David Carter, Raul Canlas, Charlie Ho and Pearl Managuelod. He considers it the POC's job to elevate Filipino athletes by giving them the proper training and exposure, especially when it comes to opportunities to compete in international competitions. He also believes that it was former POC president and PLDT executive Ricky Vargas who became the catalyst for the change in a way that the committee will be shaping during his term.
Panlilio's win came in as sports teams backed by Philippine business tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan (MVP) entered new chapters in their respective competitions. TNT Tropang Giga booked a slot in the championship series against the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings at the PBA Philippine Cup in Clark, Pampanga. All the hardcourt action within the PBA bubble was captured by Smart 5G which is highly regarded as the first 5G-powered live broadcast in the Philippines. With its fiber-like speeds on mobile devices, viewers have enjoyed every angle and content on their favorite PBA teams and players. On the other hand, PLDT-Smart, along with Cignal TV, SBP, Philippine Sports Commission, the Inter-Agency Task Force Against Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) and other organizations, pulled out all the stops to support the Gilas Pilipinas national men's basketball team which won their battles against Thailand twice in the next leg of the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Qualifiers held in Manama, Bahrain last November 27 (Friday) and 30 (Monday).
Aside from basketball, PLDT, Smart and the MVP Sports Foundation have also poured a lot of support for Filipino athletes in the fields of weightlifting, boxing, gymnastics, badminton, volleyball and eSports to name a few. The values Panlilio learned on the hardcourt are deeply routed in the telco executive, making it easier for him to apply them in the boardroom and create a culture of champions in PLDT and Smart. This drive has eventually helped TNT, one of the brands under the wireless business unit of the country's largest integrated telecommunications brand PLDT, to become the top prepaid brand in the consumer market.
