ALAMINOS CITY—Former World Shoot champion Jeufro “Jag” Lejano led more than 100 practical shooters from different North and Central Luzon gun clubs, which saw action in the Alaminos Gali-La Festival Shootfest recently at the Hundred Islands Practical Shooters Association firing range at Barangay Sabangan here.
Alaminos Mayor Hernani Braganza fired the ceremonial shot to formally open the competition and welcome the participants, which included Lejano, the 2005 International Practical Shooting Confederation champion in the modified division.
The two-day shootfest was a Level II event sanctioned by the Philippine Practical Shooting Association, the first to be staged in this city.
The shootfest featured four major divisions, namely, standard, production, open and modified. There were other minor categories—standard single stack, lawman production and standard, lady open, junior standard, senior standard and production and LGU standard and production.
Lejano went on to stamp his class in the production division; Bogs Resuello emerged standard division champion; Enrique Cheesman topped the open division, while Roy Rondilla was best in the modified class.
According to Braganza, an avid practical shooter, whose son Lean was a former teammate of Lejano in the Philippine team, the shootfest was part of the celebrations for the seventh year of the Gali-La Viva San Jose Festival of the Hundred Islands held in honor of the city’s patron saint, St. Joseph.
Alex Ang, HIPSA president, said the shootfest will be among the regular events that would be included in the annual celebration of the Festival of the Hundred Islands. He added that HIPSA will also conduct monthly shoots and regular training for young practical shooters.
“Hopefully by next year, we will have a Level III sanctioned match, which means 10 grueling shooting stages instead of seven which we have right now,” said Ang, who is also the concurrent president of Western Pangasinan Chamber of Commerce.
“This is our commitment to the Braganza administration’s sports tourism thrust. It’s our way of helping promote Alaminos as sports tourism center of Region 1,” he said further.
Braganza thanked and congratulated the HIPSA headed by Ang, match director Jerry Mateo and Engr. Roland Ranches, owner of the land where the firing range is located, for organizing the event and reminding the gun owners of their responsibilities to the society.
He also extended gratitude to the PPSA and the National Range Officers Institute for supporting the event.
“Through this firing range and this event that we held, we are again promoting our Hundred Islands National Park not just to our regular tourists, but also to all the gun enthusiasts in the country,” Braganza said.
