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| (Image Source: ONE Championship) |
Team Lakay's Lara Pearl Alvarez and Filipino mixed martial arts (MMA) champion Louie Sangalang are representing the Philippines in "The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition" which is slated to debut in Asia on March 2021 and globally two months later. These two, along with 14 other competitors from ten different countries, have withstood tight and gruelling eliminations through a series of physical and business challenges provided by the largest and most valuable global sports media property in Asian history to vie for the ultimate prize: a US$250,000 job offer and the opportunity to work directly under ONE Championship founder, chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong in Singapore as his protege for one year.
Born in Baguio City, Lara knows what it's like to overcome adversity. As a child, she worked under the hot sun in her father's farm where she harvested crops and sold them at the local market. Soon, she started to practice martial arts and eventually learned important life values such as discipline, compassion, humility and integrity which helped her succeed both personally and professionally. Aside from currently working as an accountant and training diligently inside the world-famous Team Lakay gym, Alvarez also took on an enormous responsibility of being a mother and a father to her only child with the help of her family.
The Baguio-born Sangalang, on the other hand, started off as a rebellious teenager considering that he has been exposed to the harsh realities of life in a third-world nation where he got into fights, was alcohol-dependent, and even became a father at the age of 21. But he grew into a man of integrity after overcoming appendicial cancer at age 23. He soon began training in mixed martial arts where he eventually became the undefeated URCC (Universal Reality Combat Championship) Featherweight Champion from 2003 to 2005 and was a semifinalist in "Kamao: Matira Matibay", the first reality boxing television program in the Philippines. After finishing a degree in humanities and a professional MMA career, Sangalang worked in various industries while mostly focused on raising her daughter.
Ultimately, Sangalang climbed up the ranks in AXA Philippines, going from Brand and Communications Officer to Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and eventually to Head of Procurement and Purchasing. He then took early retirement and dropped out of business school to open his own procurement processing firm and to teach in three universities across Metro Manila. In 2018, Sangalang became the first Filipino cancer survivor to finish the North Pole Marathon, completed the inaugural Ironman Philippines, and was promoted to BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) purple belt by Professor Fernando Salvador under the Pedro Sauer BJJ Association.
Aside from Alvarez and Sangalang, the other participants in "The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition" are Alvin Ang and Joy Koh of Singapore; Irina Chadsey of Russia; Eugene Chung, Monica Millington, Nazee Sadeji and Roman Wilson of USA; Teirra Kamolvattanavith of Thailand; Paulina Purnomowati of Indonesia; Jessica Ramella of Venezuela; Niraj Puran Rao of India; Sho Takei of Japan; Clinton Tudor of New Zealand; and Kexin Ye of Germany. To make the challenges well-rounded for the participants, the show has brought in CEOs from various world-renouned brands as well as from ONE Championship's stable of world champions and world-class fighters.
"The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition" was filmed entirely in Singapore in accordance with prevailing health and safety protocols. The series will feature iconic locations and brings forth passion made possible by stories that mirror the country's never-settling spirit of enterprise. Consisting of 13 episodes, "The Apprentice: ONE Championship Edition" will premiere across Asia on March 18 (Thursday) on the show's official Asian broadcast partner AXN Asia and will be available on digital platforms and television networks across the region on March including MediaCorp (Singapore), AbemaTV (Japan), KompasTV (Indonesia), Amarin TV (Thailand), LINE TV (Thailand), TV5 (Philippines) and HTV (Vietnam).
