My Soccer Story: Part 3

My other local soccer hero now is Ismael C. Batiles whom we call Mike. He is now the interim Vice President of the Philippine Football Federation. He said he volunteered to head a committee on good governance and transparency. The issue on financial irregularity, nothwithstanding ineffective and poor leadership were the issues why they voted for a no-confidence vote and ousted the incumbent president.

I've known Mike for more than 30 years and he belongs to a circle closest to me. He was and still is, also a steel journey man. Fresh from graduating from Western Institute of Technology with the degree in Chemical Engineering in 1978, he came to Iligan as one of the scholars of National Steel Corporation (NSC) who would pursue the newly opened Metallurgical Engineering course at Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology. We would be classmates then, studying on a part time basis and they, as full time students. After that, he would pay back NSC and would stay with the company for almost 20 years. We would be together under Technical Division, Quality Assurance, he specializing in billet steel making and I with Cold and Hot rolling. From Process Metallurgist, he would moved on to become billet line supervisor and Sr. Supervisor, QA Head, and Billet Plant Manager. He was one of NSC's topnotch technical men as far as billet steel making is concerned. When the Malaysian firm Wing Tiek and later Hottic took over NSC, he was transferred to the Purchasing Division, a move which caught his surprise. When he asked why, because as he said he is a technical man, he was told by top management that they the only qualification they are looking for this position (who will be handling millions of foreign purchases) is a person with proven integrity. And without doubt, he suit that qualification. This is his trademark and reputation which friends and colleagues at NSC have known him for: competence and integrity.

We used to play a lot of basketball but I'm not sure if he plays soccer, but he sure know the game. Sometime in 1988, as president of our Supervisors Association (ISSAI), he and his board appointed me as chairman of the sports committee and that year, we launched a highly successful football tournament, featuring elementary schools within Iligan City proper. In coordination with NSC's Marketing Division, each team was sponsored by a galvanizing company who were customers of NSC. To my mind, it was the first and the last football tourney of its kind held in Iligan City.

When NSC closed shop in 1999, Mike pursued his scrap export business. He has toured the world, Europe, US and Asian countries looking for scrap to feed NSC's billet shop. with this technical and commercial background, in a short time, his scrap business was a thriving business. With trained assistants and procedures and policies in place, he longed for action. so he joined the fledging Bacnotan Steel Industries Inc.owned by the Phinma group in Calaca Batangas. It was a new billet steel making and rebar roling plant but early on, it was beset by both technical and financial burdens until it finally closed sometime in 2000 at the height of the Asian crisis.

Mike went back to Iligan and finally settled and based himself in nearby Cagayan de Oro. This is where he strated to become involved in football until this year when he was elected president of Cagayan de Oro Football Club. He loves football and he wants to be involved and make a difference in promoting this beautiful game.

They could just go on with their happy lives and forget the politics in football. Both are financially stable and living happy married lives. But football is their passion, in their blood. And so, when the controversy over the leadership of PFF will be settled soon which obviously will be in their favor, there is no doubt Philippine football will be on the right track. And like before all these years, starting when I was a kid kicking balls on the sidelines of the goals, I will just be on the sidelines, cheering, and continue wishing that someday, my long cherished dream will come true: to see live a World Cup Finals.