Men, women in uniform, show soft side in hotly contested singing tilt

ARMY Pfc. Malou V. Eslaga

RET. PN 2Lt. Mel Sorrillano

You’d think uniformed men and women would be the tough-as-nails sort, wary and unwilling to show a vulnerable side.

Not all of them, it turns out—certainly not this bunch that packed the Music Museum on Thursday night last week for “Battle of the Champions,” grand finals of the competition among singing “stars” from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

Eleven winners of regional competitions slugged it out fiercely—at times tenderly, sweetly, nobly, depending on their songs of choice—for hefty cash prizes and the coveted recognition as champ-of-champs. Their pieces were certified contest favorites—familiar melodies that showed off voice quality to the max, soaring notes that flew past the padded doors and out to the MM lobby.

Tantalizing, each performance was.

In their seats the judges smiled and nodded, exchanged approving glances with each final phrase delivered with flourish … and wondered, what was it about the soldier’s or cop’s life that made these singers so confident and yet so sensitive? SPO2 Reynaldo de los Reyes, a hit-and-run victim just two days earlier, delivered a moving “Love is a Many-Splendored Thing” from a wheelchair! And the women were movie-star material.

SPO2 Reynaldo P. de los Reyes

ARMY T/Sgt. Wilhelmino S. Celestial

Retired Navy 2Lt. Mel Sorillano took the top prize of P150,000 in cash, with the Martin Nievera hit “This is the Moment.” First runner-up was Army T/Sgt. Wilhelmino S. Celestial, who won P100,000 with his rendition of the Basil Valdez original, “Salamin ng Buhay.” Second runner-up title and P75,000 went to Army Pfc. Malou Eslaga, who sang Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing.”

The tilt was mounted by the Air Materiel Wing Savings and Loan Association, Inc., whose president and board chair, retired Air Force Col. Ricardo Nolasco Jr., profusely thanked AFP Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Jesse Dellosa and PNP Director General Nicanor Bartolome for “the great support.”

Dr. Raul M. Sunico, president of the Cultural Center of the Philippines and dean of UST Conservatory of Music, headed the panel of judges that included former President Joseph Estrada, former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos and Consul General Michael Schimmel of the US Embassy.

As the winners were announced, the top three and their valiant competitors saluted the audience, a reminder that they were soldiers, first and foremost.