Angara hails Gilas' silver medal finish in Fiba Asia

Sen. Sonny Angara today commended the Gilas Pilipinas basketball team for putting up a brave fight against eventual FIBA Asia champion China, coming just one victory short of automatically qualifying for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

"The silver medal finish this year just proved that we are fast-becoming one of the most-feared teams in Asia again. No reason to be ashamed. Really proud of what the team has achieved, in spite and despite of our sorry loss to the mighty Chinese team," the chairman of the Senate committee on games, amusement and sports said.

Angara, who is set to file a resolution commending Gilas Pilipinas, paid tribute to the entire team, as well as to the coaching staff and the management "for making us proud as Filipinos during the entire tournament."

The senator, who has authored and sponsored the naturalization of former NBA big man Andre Blatche, particularly gave credit to Samahan ng Basketbol ng Pilipinas president Manny V. Pangilinan for his consistent and unwavering support to the country's basketball program.

"Kudos to MVP for making all this possible," Angara said as he expressed hope that "the feat achieved by the team will serve as inspiration to the entire Filipino nation especially on the youth that anything is possible as long as we work, put our hearts and focus our mind to achieve our goals."

"We could say that our Gilas team's determination and grit certainly triumphed over great odds and circumstantial misfortunes," the lawmaker stressed.