(Eagle News)–The Palace on Saturday, Aug. 31, hailed Gilas Pilipinas players after their match against Italy.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the players deserve Filipinos’ admiration because they “played with grit and passion.”
He said Duterte “patiently watched the game as the Filipino players valiantly fought their taller, bigger, shiftier and sharp-shooting Italians.”
“In the end we were outplayed and out-scored but not without displaying some flashes of brilliance, although few and far between,” he said.
“It’s not always the winning that counts, it’s how the game is played,” he added.
President Duterte was on an official trip to China when he watched the game in Beijing.
Gilas Pilipinas lost to the Italians, 108-62.
