For flag and country

Ronald Macariñas recalls growing up in hardship in Mindanao. Basketball was all that he and his friends had, and he and his brother disagreed over whether Crispa or Toyota was the best PBA team. He soon found his way to Metro Manila, and rose to the position of president of Bounty Agri Ventures, Inc. (BAVI), most known for its popular roast chicken brand, Chooks To Go. “Chook” is, of course, Australian slang for chicken.

In 2016, BAVI forayed into basketball as a means of boosting both public morale and the values of the youth. Mascariñas and his group sought out a UAAP seniors basketball team that had no sponsors, and backed them up. Their only condition was that no coach, player or member of the squad’s staff would ever exhibit bad behavior. It was far too common in the NBA and every local league. No complaining, no questioning calls, no technical fouls would be tolerated. In return, the team would receive everything the top teams were getting. The partnership worked for one season.

“Then there was a pre-season tournament, and I saw the players were complaining about the referees,” Mascariñas recalls. “And the coaches weren’t doing anything about it. So right then and there, we told them we were pulling out our support.”

This uncommon corporate culture sets BAVI apart. For every dressed and roasted chicken that they sell, a portion of the revenue is allocated to the Filipino athlete. But more than that, they realized that a shift in culture was needed. Nationalism had been supplanted by self-adulation. Ego had overtaken patriotism. This could only be addressed at the grassroots level.

“It was hard to get teams to lend players to the national team, even the schools,” says Mascariñas. “The priests were not ashamed to say that they had a collegiate tournament, semifinals or finals. You can’t borrow players from us. Where did this callousness come from? The values they were teaching the youth, country is not important. What is more important is our school.”

Partnering with the Department of Education, Ayala Foundation, and the National Historical Commission and thousands of public school principals, BAVI started distributing tens of thousands of flags to thousands of schools all over the country. The sad state of treatment of the flag had gotten so bad, all but one supplier had been suspended by the national government. Flags being sold were not up to standard. The measurements were wrong, or the flags tore too easily. It was another disturbing discovery for Mascariñas and his group.

Supporting Team Pilipinas was a no-brainer for Chooks To Go. When the national team won, Filipinos felt happy, empowered. And if the Philippines makes it to the Olympics, the entire nation feels like a winner.

“If the Philippine team wins, or makes it to the Olympics, the people are happy,” he adds. “And maybe that will be the start of greater nationalism.”

He told the story of South Korea’s amazing recovery from the 1997 Asian financial crisis. From its status as the 11th strongest economy in the world, the country had to borrow billions of dollars from the International Monetary Fund. The citizens voluntarily lined up at government centers, offering up all their personal and family gold heirlooms. That story stuck with the BAVI executive.

Recently, Mascariñas also came to the realization that they may be an easier way to make it back to Olympic basketball, and the Chooks To Go network has formed the necessary partnerships to make it happen, despite the seeming impossibility.

That plan and more in Monday’s column.