BISHOP’S CUP. Bishop Carlito Cenzon Foundation president Victorino Agcaoili (left) and treasurer Rolando de Guzman (right) on Thursday say everything is ready for the 17th Bishop Cenzon golf tournament on Friday at the Camp John Hay golf course. The event aims to raise funds for the construction and repair of churches in Baguio and Benguet. (PNA photo by Pigeon M. Lobien)
BAGUIO CITY – The golf tournament that helped build churches in Benguet for the past 16 years will tee off on Nov. 8 at the Camp John Hay golf course without its founder, the late Baguio-Benguet Bishop Carlito Cenzon.
Cenzon’s legacy lives on with his colleagues who helped make the annual tournament a success, with at least six churches that were built through the 16 years of its existence.
“We will tee off without our beloved bishop,” said Bishop Carlito Cenzon Foundation president Victorino Agcaoili, a high school classmate and good friend of the bishop on Thursday.
Cenzon passed away due to a lingering illness on June 26, 2019.
Agcaoili said even without the late bishop, his group of seven, who started the annual tournament in 2003, is confident to get something close to the 224 golfers who played last year.
“We really do not know the impact of the bishop’s death as to participation and sponsorship,” the 81-year-old former broadcaster said.
This year, the foundation hopes to raise enough to help in the upgrade of the Christ the King Quasi-Parish in Bad-ayan in Loo, in the vegetable producing town of Buguias, Benguet.
The small parish needs PHP20 million at least for improvement but only part of which will be shouldered by the foundation, said treasurer Rolando de Guzman, a retired bank executive and another close friend of the late bishop.
It will be the second church in Buguias the foundation will help after its very first in barangay Abatan 16 years ago.
“It was the church of choice of the bishop before he died,” de Guzman said.
The Loo project is the sixth church the Cenzon foundation will help after the Abatan project and those in Bakun town; Twin Peaks and Cabuyao in Tuba town; and San Jose church in La Trinidad and the Divine Mercy Church in Baguio.
The bulk of the fund raised by the foundation goes to Benguet.
The funds come from sponsorship mostly of old Baguio folks who migrated to the United States, said James Alviar, a second-generation former Camp John Hay employee, whose family alone will give a few thousand dollars to the cause just like in the past staging.
One of the bishop’s closest friends, Alviar is one of the founders of the golf cup along with long-time neighbor Nelson Eslao, a retired Philippine Air Force general of the Philippine Military Academy class of 1971 and a Camp John Hay executive particularly for sports including golf.
It was Eslao who suggested that they can raise funds through golf tournaments and sponsors will be mostly old Baguio residents.
Alviar offered his restaurant in Scout Barrio as a regular meeting place, and who provides the food to the members.
“Now this is a project we hold with our wives helping us,” said de Guzman's wife Nitz, a retired college professor is now part of the organizing committee of about 25.
The entry fee to the tournament is PHP1,500 for members and PHP2,500 for non-John Hay golf members inclusive of dinner and raffle.
There will be three categories for men and two for women with an over-all titlist.
Special awards will be given to the most accurate drive, nearest to the pin and most exercised. (PNA)
