FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT
‘El Presidente’ happy to stay away from limelight
Where basketball great Mon Fernandez goes, success is not far behind. As a basketball player, Fernandez, nicknamed “El Presidente” owing to his elegant shot, is non-pareil. A product of the University of San Carlos in Cebu, Fernandez is the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) all-time scoring leader, a four-time Most Valuable Player pick, 13-time Mythical Team member and a main man on the national teams that competed in the 1973 Asian Basketball Confederation Championships, 1974 world championships as well as the 1974 and 1990 Asian Games.
But lately, Fernandez hasn’t been that active in basketball as he now focuses on his business.
“My company installs solar panels all over the country,” Fernandez said on a lazy Sunday morning from his homebase in Cebu City. His clientele is topnotch. One of them is SM, whose malls are being turned to environment-friendly structures. So far, Fernandez has completed the installation of solar panels at SM Cebu and is in the process of equipping the SM Seaside, too.
“We are busy expanding our solar business. We are doing pretty okay and this has been keeping me busy,” Fernandez, now 70, said.
Actually, Fernandez put up this business in 2015 and even when he assumed the role of commissioner at the Philippine Sports Commission, he still managed to keep it afloat despite his main role as a sports facilitator.
Since leaving government service two years ago, Fernandez’s main thrust is the growth of his company. Aside from the two main Cebu SM shopping centers, Fernandez also brought his solar panel to a nearby SM outlet in Consolacion and is looking forward to adding eight more in the near future.
“SM has about 90-plus malls all over the country,” he said, noting that the future appears bright for his solar panel business.
“When I started in 2015, the price was a bit high but almost ten years later, the cost has gone down considerably. And the equipment nowadays is more advanced.”
As rave reviews of Fernandez’s expertise reach other interested parties, so is the clamor by commercial and industrial facilities to have theirs equipped, too.
On the horizon are malls located in Iloilo, General Santos City, Butuan, Bataan, Bacolod, sites Fernandez’s group will add to his growing list of accomplishments.
Master sportsman
Still, Fernandez can’t help but touch some sports issues.
Besides, before becoming a businessman, he was a highly-decorated sportsman, the type of guy fans praised to high heavens for his feats.
From time to time, he attempts to revisit his sports connection but admits
“it is difficult to raise funds lately” as he attempts to bring financial help to weightlifting and table tennis.
“In the meantime, these are the two sports I plan to help because weightlifting is thriving here in
Cebu and as for table tennis, we have proven that we can send one to the Olympics,” Fernandez said, referring to the late table-tennis ace Ian Lariba, who competed in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“A lot of mainstream sports are being funded by private groups so I would like to focus on the others, especially their grassroots development,” said the Maasin, Leyte-born dribbler, noting that the Philippines has also proven that it can excel in individual sports played in weight categories.
As for his first love, Fernandez expressed a bit of sadness over the low turnout of fans during PBA games.
“Times have changed. Nowadays, people have a lot of choices for entertainment. We have the internet, we have different leagues playing different sports.”
And Fernandez commiserates with the PBA family when being told about the poor attendance, saying it feels weird to be playing before rows and rows of empty seats.
“When I was playing I don’t recall playing in a venue that didn’t have at least 5,000 people watching. Well, I did play in smaller venues, like a small gym in the province but it was packed with probably 3,000 people.”
A big part of the game is the presence of spectators, whose reactions serve as motivation for a competing player to push himself to the limit.
“It’s hard for a player to be playing with just a few people watching. Hindi lalabas ang pawis mo. You gotta hear the clapping and the catcalls, the jeers. It will help you play harder. I could just imagine how they feel.” Aside from the internet, Fernandez also points to one crucial factor. “Basically, the fans, some of them, don’t know the players (coming in). Unlike during our time, they knew who we were because we played in schools until we went to college and played commercially.” Basketball, according to Fernandez, is based on patronage. “This is the reason why when we were with the MBA (Metroball), the attendance was tremendous.”
During his PBA days, Fernandez starred for Toyota, Manila Beer, Tanduay, Purefoods before ending his legendary career with San Miguel after 19 years.
By the time he retired in 1994, the 6-feet-4 Fernandez had scored 18,996 points in 1,074 games.
Only his bitter rival Abet Guidaben of Crispa played more games than him with 1,081 but he only got to score 15,775 in a
20-year career.
Taking it easy
‘Times have changed. Nowadays, people have a lot of choices for entertainment. We have the internet, we have different leagues playing different sports.’
Now that he is no longer that active in basketball owing to his being devoted to his business, Fernandez still finds a way to relax during weekends with his wife Karla Kintanar-Fernandez.
“I love fishing and golf and shooting,” he said.
“These are the things that I enjoy doing from time to time. We travel to a lot of places here in the Visayas where there are lots of beautiful places like Bohol.”
With a successful business to attend to during weekdays, Fernandez seems to be doing A-okay with life away from the limelight.
And what if sports come knocking once again?
Fernandez is sure to open the door.
“During my years at the PSC, I saw first-hand the things that needed to be addressed to help Philippine sports. Especially grassroots development. We can’t always blame the government because it has to attend to other pressing matters and important priorities.”
If he finds the time and the chance to lend a hand, Fernandez insists that he always has a blueprint in hand.
In the meantime, Fernandez is relishing his new role as a solar specialist. Indeed, the future looks bright.