BIZ BUZZ: ‘Ninang’ Robina commits more support for UP Fighting Maroons
Business tycoon Robina Gokongwei-Pe, the godmother of the University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons, led the Gokongwei group on Monday in renewing their commitment to the premier state university’s men’s basketball team—for the 16th straight year.
Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc., Top Breed (under Universal Robina Corp.’s Agri-Industrial Group) and NowheretogobutUP Foundation signed a renewal of partnership and support for the UP Men’s Basketball Team (MBT) for University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Season 88.
The UP MBT is a three-time champion of UAAP men’s basketball and this year’s defending champion. Before 2024, the team bagged the championship in 2022, and prior to that, in 1986.
But when the Gokongwei group came in, UP MBT wasn’t exactly at the top of its game.
“People ask me, why did we even decide to sponsor a team that was doing zero-14. And I said, this is about giving back to your school because you owe your success to your school,” she said.
She was referring to UP MBT’s team standing in year 2010, when the team finished with 14 losses and zero win during the entire season.
“Manalo, matalo, I love you pa rin (Win or lose, I still love you),” said Gokongwei-Pe, herself an alumna of UP (economics major) and a former sports writer of the student publication, Philippine Collegian.
The efforts of NowheretogobutUP Foundation, backed by Robina and other business groups, were not in vain. UP MBT has grown to be a formidable team that is capable of replicating its 1986 year of glory. The team emerged on top in Season 94 (May 2022), despite being a dark horse during the season, and again in Season 87 (December 2024).
“This morning we renew more than a partnership. We renew a promise, to believe, to rise to fight, to make history together,” said Marian Coquia-Regidor, UP vice president for public affairs.
Furthermore, Regidor announced that the UP media and communications team had found itself in possession of a very important “Betamax” (younger people would have to google what this is) tape recording—that of the historic 1986 UAAP championship game.
“It’s one of the few, if not the only surviving documentation, of our UP men’s basketball championship in 1986,” Regidor said.
But because the antiquated recording had not been run for decades, it’s in a really bad shape. UP needs to send it to Germany to have it restored.
“We need to digitize what’s in it, restore it and preserve it,” Regidor said. “Whatever it takes, we will restore it to preserve this piece of history.”
And the ever-reliable NowheretogobutUP Foundation, led by chair Jed Eva, promptly volunteered the foundation to cover the restoration.
