It is a title of a song, and album, too, All Things Must Pass, by former Beatle George Harrison after the band’s breakup in 1970.
George came out with this triple album of all previously unreleased materials that the Beatles previously rejected.
But for George, the song All Things Must Pass was very apt. It simply meant all things will end, as in the case of his band, and that it is time to move on.
Now why am I writing about George, you may ask? Actually, I am writing about his song and how it applies to me.
You see, this will be my farewell column in this paper and I would like to thank Manila Standard for the opportunity given to me to express my feelings and thoughts about issues and concerns in sports, including personalities, too.
Am I sad? Yes, of course, I love writing and doing columns. Now, do I feel bad? No, sad but not bad. I have been into corporate management for a very long time and understand how business decisions are made. Just need to apply again my personal mantra, Understand, Accept, and Adjust—the U, A & A of life for me.
I started writing sports in 1977, doing news and feature stories in various sports magazines, before graduating to being a magazine columnist in the 1990s, and believe me, column writing is a feel-good thing to do. Like being able to tell people to do things that you cannot do yourself.
I began contributing stories to national broadsheets, but it was the late Bert Cuevas, then sports editor of Manila Times, who gave me the real break, so much so that when he transferred to Manila Standard in 1996, I simply followed him as valuing relationships was and still is important for me.
Before he passed away in 2006, I joined a MILO Marathon writing contest and won first place for a story I did for Manila Standard. I was very happy because whatever I got as cash prize, the same amount went to the editor (Bert in this case) and that time, he was not in good health anymore.
It was his assistant Rey Mallari, who succeeded him and it was Rey who in turn helped me realize my dream of writing a sports column for a national broadsheet more than two years ago.
It was also in this paper where I first wrote about a possible community pantry for national athletes, both regular and para athletes during this time of the pandemic, a thought that became a reality last year.
This came after I underwent my quadruple bypass almost a year ago and again, it was in this paper that I shared that experience, my fears, my feelings, everything that was going through my mind at that time.
Working with a group of friends, including Tom Carrasco, Alex Wang, Nino Sinco, and Karen Caballero, all sports lovers like me, we were able to come up with the “Ayuda Sa Atleta” campaign, raised funds and items that benefited close to 600 athletes. The excess funds of P42,000 from the over P500,000 raised, we donated to typhoon victims in Mindanao and the Visayas.
This is why I will treasure forever the time I was writing my “The Bottom Line” column, but as George Harrison captured it perfectly in his song, the time has come to leave behind the past and move on to the future.
I thank the readers, who have been reading my pieces in “The Bottom Line” these past years, it was a pleasure for me to be able to connect with sports fans through this column.
I have been into sportswriting now for close to 45 years and I intend to continue it. After all, I will still be contributing sports stories to Rey, it is only my column and my line that has reached the bottom, pun intended, and that is indeed the bottom line.