Defending champion University of Perpetual Help tries to enhance its status as one of the best cheer dance schools in the country as it shoots for a fourth straight title today in the 88thNCAA Cheerleading Competition at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

Having trained long and hard for the event, the UPH squad is expected to dish out some new tricks – perhaps more explosive than last year – in its bid to extend its reign to seven crowns in the country’s oldest collegiate league.

Rain or Shine rookie Chris Tiu scored a career-best 16 points, 10 of which came in the pivotal fourth quarter as the Elasto Painters extended their winning streak to five with a 103-95 win over Globalport in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The six-foot Tiu shot 5-of-11 from the field, including 3-of-7 from the three-point territory in just 20 minutes of action. With the Painters up by just one, Tiu buried a trey with 1:03 to play to put his team up, 96-92.

Despite the influx of Fil-foreign players, two proud sons of football hotbed Western Visayas made the most impact for the sport in the year that was.

Chieffy Caligdong of Pototan, Iloilo, struggled with his game but delivered when the chips were down for the Philippine Azkals while Eduard Sacapano of Bago City, Negros Occidental was solid as rock all season in stressing his point that goalkeeping with the national team is more than just Neil Etheridge.

Top seed Albert Lim Jr. inched closer to winning the Ajay Pathak Memorial Cup/ITF 14-Under Development Championships 2013 Division I byr dumping his rival in the semifinals at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center.

The 14-year-old Lim, the lone Filipino standing in the tournament, routed fifth pick Parikshit Somani of India, 6-0, 6-1, to arrange a championship meeting with second seed Vorachon Rakpuangchon of Thailand in the boys’ division.

Rakpuangchon demolished No. 3 Sou Ming Chun Alan of Hong Kong, 6-2, 6-1.

The National Golf Association of the Philippines’ board convened yesterday and unanimously voted to put MVP Sports Foundation president Al S. Panlilio as treasurer in place of the resigned Abe Rosal.

Panlilio, also an avid golfer, graciously accepted the post and promised to work hand-in-hand with the NGAP in helping realize for the country its dream of winning a first-ever gold medal in the Olympics.

The much-awaited Romero Polo Festival starts today with the staging of the first-ever AirAsia’s Crystal Cup where the country’s young guns slug it out against each other for prestige and bragging rights at the Alabang Country Club field.

Though he’s relatively new in the glamorous sport, Globalport owner Mikee Romero doled out quite a fortune in sponsoring the two-day polo festival to give the emerging stars like Jam, Nicole and Massu Eusebio and Kimberly Lofgren the avenue to show their stuff when they mix it up with the veterans.

The Fab Five of the PLDT-ABAP national youth team are raring to rumble with the best of Asia two days before hostilities break out in the 2013 ASBC Asian Confederation Youth Boxing Championships at the Subic gym in this coastal municipality of Zambales.

The Philippine government has appealed to Malaysia to treat Filipino detainees humanely as possible in the wake of the Sabah standoff.

As this developed, Islamic clerics in Mindanao appealed to leaders of Malaysia and the Sultanate of Sulu to “fear Allah and act as true Muslims.”

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Malacañang has also asked Malaysian authorities to allow the Philippine government to have access to the detained Filipinos in Sabah for humanitarian purposes.

Rajah Muda Agbimuddin Kiram, 72, the leader of the 235-strong self-styled Royal Security Force (RSF) of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo, is a teacher, not a fighter.

He is a brother of Sultan Jamalul Kiram III, who issued a royal decree allowing him and the RSF members to make a “journey home” to Sabah, Malaysia, referring to the sultanate’s “ancestral right” over the oil-rich island.

But Malaysia stands firm that Sabah is part of its federation.