DIETHER OCAMPO IN LOVE ON AND OFF THE POLO FIELD?
Actor-sportsman Diether Ocampo’s love life never escapes media scrutiny. He is always linked to accomplished women.
During the Cockatoo Cup last Feb. 18 at the North Polo Club (NPC) at Big Ben Farm in Pulilan, Bulacan, annotator Jack Clark Jr. kept teasing businesswoman and “beauty guru” Cathy Valencia over the mic every time Ocampo scored a goal.
He scored four goals, by the way, and his team won 9-8.
The Cockatoo Cup started three seasons ago as an informal game among players. Polo patron and NPC owner lawyer Pacifico “Jun” Eusebio Jr. drew inspiration from the cockatoos on his farm. The actor told fellow polo players how the cockatoo is the most loyal bird. When its partner dies, it will never find a replacement. That was how these devoted mallet-wielding husbands took to calling themselves “cockatoos.”
Polo players teased Ocampo if he would become a “cockatoo” some day.
Ocampo took the jest as a challenge by organizing the 2018 Cockatoo Cup with the eponymous aesthetic center, Cathy Valencia Advanced Skin Clinic, as sponsor. One of Valencia’s celebrity endorsers, he looks younger than his age, 43.
This isn’t the first time that Ocampo has organized a sporting event. He held the Diether Ocampo Golf Tournament at Tagaytay Midlands and Highlands in 2010 and 2011 respec----
tively. The beneficiary was his Kids Foundation. Ocampo has been doing equestrian sports for five years. Unlike other polo matches at NPC, the woman’s touch was visible in the Cockatoo Cup. The entrance was decked with accoutrements. The tablecloths were bold-patterned camouflage designs, perked up with bright floral centerpieces. The players wore fashionable, color-coded camouflage shirts. Society watchers and the polo community noticed that the equestrienne and former World Cup champion Michelle Cojuangco-Barrera was absent. Five years ago, the media reported Ocampo’s romance with Barrera, who got him interested in equestrian sports. The couple reportedly split up two years ago.
At the Conluck Cup (held a week before the Cockatoo Cup), Barrera played her first polo game at NPC.
Barrera scored two goals in the low goal match. She had only eight days of basic stick-and-ball training. Meanwhile, Ocampo scored three goals after falling from the horse in mid-goal.
During Valentine’s Day, Ocampo and Valencia were spotted at the Manila House.
Speaking of another teamwork on the field, former Viva Hot Babe Andrea del Rosario, now vice mayor of Calatagan, is one of the stronger new players in the polo community—she is being coached by her partner, Anthony Garcia, a professional player and five-goaler.