SOME 250 golfers from all over the country will be joining the Ludo Golf Tournament, a two-day charity event at the Cebu Country Club on Jan. 17, 2020. The tournament hopes to raise funds for victims of the Cotabato earthquake.

“All of us want to live longer, so we can enjoy and have more. However, beyond enjoyment, there must be a higher purpose. The Ludo Golf Tournament is one of the ways we can do this and, in this instance, it goes towards the benefit of the Cotabato earthquake victims,” said tournament founder and organizer Douglas Luym.

He said the Ludo Golf Tournament started in the 1980s as a memorial event in honor of Cayetano Ludo. It became a charity event when organizers started raising funds first for those affected by the Banda Aceh tsunami in 2004. Luym said that a young boy, whose family was one of the direct recipients of their support, wrote them a touching letter, saying, “As a Muslim, we do not have Christmas or really have a Santa Claus, but maybe he is real and he lives in Cebu Country Club.”

Since then, organizers have focused on immediate financial relief through direct donations. Relaunched in 2018, over 300 participants took part in the tournament and raised nearly P7 million for the families of the fallen in Marawi. In 2019, the tournament raised P5 million, which was given to the 444 affected families of the tragic landslide in the City of Naga. (PR)