ILAGAN CITY, Isabela — Ilagan City takes pride of its title as the Corn Capital of the Philippines but it is also building up its reputation as the Sports and Entertainment Hub of the North.
The city government of Ilagan, under the leadership of Mayor Jay Diaz, is making a push of becoming the premier sports destination following another sold out hosting of the PVL On Tour featuring Nxled, Zus Coffee, Akari and Creamline, the league's cream of the crop.
Despite missed several key players during the match including Alyssa Valdez, Creamline breezed past Nxled behind a solid, all-around game from Michelle Gumabao.
In the other game, Zus Coffee repulsed repeated rallies by Akari to claim victory.
Volleyball fans from the different provinces in Cagayan Valley came to Ilagan City while some travelled 11 hours from Manila to watch the games at the 10,000-seater Capital Arena. I am sure seeing their favorite stars and getting an up close and personal feel of meeting, greeting and getting photo opportunities with PVL stars were all worth it for the fans.
Diaz experienced first hand that hosting the PVL was a perfect way to reaffirm the city's claim as the new sports tourism hub of the north. For three times, staging the games of the nation's favorite past time turned out to be a smashing hit, not only for the LGU's sports side, but also in helping their small medium entrepreneurs.
"Had I known that we could easily fill up the 10,000-seater arena, we could have put up a bigger stadium. A lot of people were still lining up outside just to watch the games, but we could not accommodate them for safety purposes," said Diaz.
In a few weeks time, Ilagan City's MPBL team, the Cowboys, will be playing its first home game in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League this season on Aug. 8 as a showcase to the cityhood celebration of Ilagan. The Cowboys will be hosting the Meycauayan squad at 7 p.m. Also seeing action in the scheduled double header are Rizal and Pasay, which will square off at 5 p.m.
The Cowboys waited 10 months to play in front of their local folks and this time, they intend to make a deeper run to the playoffs.
During its inaugural MPBL campaign last season, Ilagan Isabela cracked the playoffs, but was ushered to the exit door early by eventual champion and powerhouse Abra Weavers. This time, coach Louie Gonzalez retooled his roster with a mixture of veteran players and young blood.
Their biggest acquisition was definitely Alex Cabagnot, a nine-time PBA champion and an integral part of San Miguel Beer's rebirth of its dynasty the past decade.
With Cabagnot taking charge of keeping things at hand, the Cowboys added several more pieces like MJ Ayaay, Rob Celiz, JP Cauilan, Allen Mina, and homegrown TJ Felebrico to join holdovers Arth dela Cruz, Donald Gumaru and Allan Santos.
The Cowboys are now carrying an 11-6 win-loss record and are in a much better position to land at the upper half of the northern division playoffs.
But Ilagan City's hosting goes beyond the games of these major sporting events and the LGU is out to treat those hopeless romantics of northern Luzon when it brings the dynamic duo of Russell Hitchcok and Graham Russell, better known as Air Supply.
The concert will be held on Oct. 21 at the Capital Arena and this early, it has created a buzz throughout the city and Ilagueños are excited to see the group and hear the songs they grew up with over and over again.
"I love their songs. Their timeless and I'm sure, not only our local folks, but Filipinos fell in love with the music of Air Supply," said Diaz.
Hosting a big concert wasn't new after all, for the City of Ilagan as it brought in Parokya ni Edgar, a free concert staged by the city this summer.
