“3-a-side nga!”
The abundance of goal clearances meant for a larger pitch elicited this response from a number of the players at the inaugural Pinay In Action 3-a-side Football Fiesta sa Bonifacio High Street.
Held over Valentine’s weekend, the 2-day tournament at the High Street Amphitheatre at Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, featured all-girls football action in the Girls 13 & Under, Girls 16 & Under, and the Women’s Open categories.
Rizal Technical University (RTU) A emerged as tournament winners for the women’s open division, besting Bomber FC in the finals, 2-1.
Meanwhile, Payatas FC showed their class in both the Girls 13 & Under and the Girls 16 & Under category, routing Taguig A and Futbol Funatics, respectively, en route to a twin championship finish.
Individual awards in the divisions were as follows:
In the women’s open category, standout Myla Bajar of RTU A was recognized as the top goal scorer, while Alexandra Lupas of Taguig B was recognized as the most promising player. Over at the youth teams, the top scorers were Futbol Funatic’s Aubrey Malenab for the 16 & Under girls, and Payatas FC’s Altea Rebosura of Payatas FC for the 13 & Under. Meanwhile, players awarded most promising were Alexandra Lupas of Taguig B and Juliana Macarubbo of Taguig A, for the under-16 and under-13 girls, respectively.
The 3 a-side tournament was organized Pinay In Action (PIA), the advocacy arm of Sen. Pia Cayetano, which aims to promote women empowerment through sports and fitness.
According to the senator—a former student-athlete herself, albeit not in football—she knows how sports can change lives. “Discipline, perseverance, courage are just a few of the many traits that come with being an athlete…For girls, it can be a very empowering tool. It gives them self-confidence to be able to participate and excel in sports [and] that self-confidence goes beyond the sport itself and can be seen in a girl-athlete’s day to day life.”
Beneficiaries for the 2-day event include the Gabriel’s Symphony Foundation, a charity founded by Sen. Cayetano, and the “Batang Rogie” charity, established by University of the Philippines student-athlete Rogie Maglinas who recently passed away due to complications from cancer.
In all there were 32 teams who participated in the event.
