THIRTY-TWO years ago, the Philippines was on top of the world in Little League baseball.
Then it wasn't.
In 1992, Zamboanga City shocked the baseball world when it ruled the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania - a Cinderella story for a team made up of poor boys from a distant province in the Philippines.
Besting squads from traditional baseball powerhouses Taiwan, Japan, and Korea to earn the right to represent the Far East, Zamboanga City continued its dream run in the US, first routing Germany, 14-2, before edging Canada, 2-0.
Though it lost to Dominican Republic, 8-1, for its final game in pool play, it redeemed itself with a big 5-1 victory over the same Santo Domingo team in the semifinals.
WATCH:
As history beckoned, the Filipinos ripped Long Beach, 15-4, in the final with pitcher Ian Tolentino delivering the final strikeout against the fancied Americans to complete the improbable championship run.
LOOK:
The victory turned the boys from Zamboanga into instant celebrities decades before weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz and gymnast Carlos Yulo become national heroes for their gold-medal feats at the Olympics.
The boys came home to a ticker-tape parade along Ayala Avenue and then-President Fidel V. Ramos gave a P1 million bonus to the team to fund livelihood projects for the members’ families.
Then it all came apart
Amid the celebration, signs that the feel-good story was concocted in a web of lies emerged.
The Inquirer’s Al Mendoza and Jess Sison of Malaya were the first to raise questions about the eligibility of some members of the team due to their age and their locality of origin upon receiving letters from neighbors and relatives of the players.
Little League Baseball is primarily for children aged 10 to 12 years old only. Under its rules, players must come from the locality that they represent if ever substitutions need to be done.
The biggest focus was placed on Tolentino who was alleged to have participated in the 1990 Bronco League in Tokyo, which has an age limit of 13, which meant he was indeed overage for the 1992 Little League World Series.
That prompted Little League president and CEO Creighton Hale to launch an investigation that, eventually, uncovered that eight players from the team were “out-of-area,” meaning that they did not come from Zamboanga, and hailed from Laguna, Cavite, and as far as Isabela.
The Philippines’ Little League district administrator Armando Andaya defended the substitutions, saying they “encountered problems of obtaining consent from simpleminded parents, especially those in Zamboanga, as they do not understand the significance of the tournaments where their sons are to participate.”
The evidence was enough for Little League to strip Zamboanga of the title less than two weeks later.
Damning Inquirer report
As the incident turned into a full-blown scandal that reached the halls of the Senate, a six-part series from the Inquirer written by Armand Nocum, Carolyn Arguillas, and Jun Engracia uncovered the full extent of the violations in detail.
According to the report, only seven players are with the Zamboanga City team were sent to the Far East Regional tournament in China. Officials replacing them with some of the best players. But when they turned 13, they were sent home.
Different players would then take the seven players' identities and pose by their names in the team that went all the way to Williamsport. Even the parents, the report said, would assume different names to keep up the farce.
The Inquirer report alleged that six boys from Zamboanga who played in the Little League World Series weren’t really who they are: Team captain Allan Bituin was 14-year-old Junifer Pinero; Jemar Alfaro was 16-year-old Alvin Alfaro; Marlon Pantaleon was his 14-year-old brother Melvin; Ignacio Ramacho was 13-year-old Ernesto Vinarao; Expedito Alvarez Jr. was 15-year-old Gilbert Alvarez; and Ricardo Marcos Jr. was 14-year-old Rodel Marcos.
The rest were not Zamboanguenos. Tolentino and Jerwin Sagun were from Canlubang, Robert Placious and Jeffrey Bartolome from Isabela, Michael Exconde from San Pablo City, Michael Gonzales and Jolifer Fridge from Cavite City, and Enel Llacuna from Imus.
One parent also came forward and claimed that he was promised a sum of money in exchange for his son’s name to be used by the team.
Eduardo Toribio, the original Zamboanga City coach who was replaced for allegedly begging off from the Far East Regionals due to personal matters, also testified that officials from Manila were the ones who initiated the substitution of players enhance the chances of beating the stronger teams, casting doubts on Andaya’s initial claim.
Despite the overwhelming evidence, not all were convinced. A good part of the population still believed that cheating occurred. To them, the controversy was no more than a trial by publicity and the Americans’ move to question the authenticity of the Filipinos’ success was nothing but racism.
Decades later, old wounds remain. There was never a closure, even after a Senate committee adopted the Inquirer report.
To this day, the incident remains a blackeye for a sport that has yet to regain its footing as the Philippines has yet to return to the grandest stage of Little League baseball.
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