Commotion Blog

IT WAS 2002 and the Araneta Coliseum was filled with a sea of blue and green. Drums thundered and cheers volleyed from each side’s galleries as the archrivals battled it out for the Universities Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) Men’s Basketball Championship. As the final buzzer sounded, the Blue Eagles emerged victorious and ended its 14-year title drought.

It has been seven long years since Mico Halili (AB Comm ’95) was seated at courtside not as mere spectator but as play-by-play commentator of ABS-CBN Sports. It has been seven long years but the exhilarating feeling of winning it all remains fresh in his mind.

Although he now enjoys his work as sports commentator for the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), Mico says that covering the first and third games of the 2002 Finals are the highlights of his career. Indeed, he will be remembered for being the voice that proclaimed that the Blue Eagles are once again the kings of the UAAP.

“When I watched the tape, I was babbling idiotic things,” he says. “As an Atenean, I’ve always dreamed of an Ateneo championship especially one over La Salle.”

Happy accidents

Mico confesses that he never planned to enter a career in sportscasting. He initially wanted to take up Fine Arts in the University of the Philippines so he could go into advertising, but after he found out he passed the Ateneo entrance exams, he took up Comm in the Ateneo.

“I was very, very poor in Math so I only had two choices: IS or Comm,” he says. “I said I’ll just choose Comm, so it was a happy accident for me.”

He had his beginnings in broadcasting as a reporter for the 5 AM news of then Sky Cable News and now ABS-CBN News Channel. This did not work for him because he wanted to have free reign on his hairstyle. After all, what is a newscaster without that neat, parted and combed hairdo?

When an opening came for sports reporting, he immediate grabbed it. “Since I was babble, I took the opportunity. My first assignment was to cover the UAAP opening. And I was doing it for three years as a Babble.”

It was during his Blue Babble Batallion days when Mico polished his journalistic tendencies. He didn’t write for any school publication but it was then when he learned to go to an event and capture the essence of the event. Since he was present in all the games, he made a habit of documenting what he saw and eventually learned different basketball jargon.

Comm mentors

For Mico, sportscasting is just like storytelling where he is the narrator and the viewers are

Sarmenta’s television production class stood out for Mico because for his final exam he proposed that ABS-CBN should cover UAAP basketball. This was in 1994 and after a couple of years, he would be part of Studio 23 covering the tournament.

“Everything I learned about sportscasting I basically learned from him and to this day, he’s very generous about giving advice and suggestions,” he says.

Aside from Sarmenta, Comm Department’s beloved MT (Mang Tony) helped Mico improve his organizational and technical skills.

“I owe my abilities of timing and editing to MT,” he says. “I did a lot of projects when he taught me to do shot lists. Before, I would go to editing without shot lists.”

He says that being a product of the old curriculum has forced him to look at the bigger picture before focusing on the details. “We may lack the technical know-how since our Comm Department isn’t the best equipped but the lack of technology forced students like me to think – think big first before we rely on technology.”

Higher league

Although he has been in this line of work for over 10 years, he believes that he’s not yet in the same league as Sarmenta or Joe Cantada.

“I’m already in the PBA and it’s very tempting to just say that there is no need to improve or learn but the toughest thing is to motivate yourself learn new things and to try to convince yourself that you’re not there yet,” he explains.

“Unless you improve you can go nowhere. Others will come in and can easily replace you,” he says.

And now that he’s a commentator for the PBA, Mico says that he feels blessed to be able to do something that is both fun and rewarding. Although he dons suits on the job, he still doesn’t feel like its work.

He considers himself lucky because not everyone gets to be a PBA commentator. “All the opportunities I’ve gotten in basketball, it wasn’t like I campaigned for it. I never thought I’d do something like commentating.”

“My early addiction to basketball prepared me for my career. It’s not my design but it kind of worked out,” Mico explains.

“I don’t think I chose basketball. Basketball chose me.” COMMotion