Jude Turcuato had an option to stay in the United States.
But his passion for sports convinced him to return to the Philippines and launch a career that changed his life forever.
“Grade school, high school, college — I was in the United States. I grew up in the Chicago area and was a big Chicago fan. I like the Chicago Bulls, Chicago Bears, Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Cubs,” said the 51-year-old Turcuato, who serves as first vice president and head of Sports of Smart/PLDT.
“Yes, I grew up in the Philippines, but that was already a long time ago. I spent my time longer in the Philippines than in the United States.”
Despite his deep admiration to Chicago teams, Turcuato has always considered the idea of returning to the Philippines to see what the country of his parents has in store for him.
“After graduating college in the United States, I went back to the Philippines, mainly to experience the country,” said Turcuato, who moved to the US when he was in fifth grade.
“From Grade 5 up to college, I was in the US. But when I was in college, we had a vacation in the Philippines and I really liked it. With that, I made a decision that after my college graduation, I’ll come back and stay briefly in the Philippines to experience the culture I grew up in.”
That “brief stay” turned into a lifetime as Turcuato’s love affair with sports brought him to Ateneo de Manila University in which he joined its men’s basketball team as a postgraduate student.
He didn’t see action in the University Athletic Association of the Philippines, but his stint in the Team B of the Blue Eagles opened a lot of doors for him, including a sports-related career.
Back then, the Ateneo coach was Mark Molina, the current head of sports of Far Eastern University. He also works in the panel of Philippine Basketball Association games.
“Mark Molina was the head coach at that time,” said Turcuato, who enrolled at the Ateneo Graduate School in 1995 — eight years since the Blue Eagles won their first title.
“But I never made the UAAP team. I guess I wasn’t really good enough to become a UAAP player, maybe, but I was a part of Team B so I played in a lot of off-season tournaments like the Fr. Martin’s Cup and others.”
Just like other players in Team B, Turcuato also had a fallback so he ended up in sports broadcasting, which eventually jump started his career in the Philippines.
“I think sports broadcasting introduced me to the sports community. I got to meet the coaches, the players, the managers, especially when I started in the UAAP — the board members,” Turcuato said.
“The UAAP gave me access. It started the relationship with personalities. I got to know how the industry works — coaching, playing, the league. It definitely helped me to where I am right now. It was my foot on the door to have relationships with different sports personalities.”
Back then, the UAAP had yet to be carried by giant networks, but was slowly but surely cracking live games on television being carried by Silverstar.
“I started with Silverstar. I started meeting all the UAAP board members — Joaqui Trillo, Jimmy Javier, Anton Montinola of Far Eastern and Mrs. Francisco from University of Santo Tomas. It was also there where I met my contemporaries like Luigi Trillo, who became one of my best friends,” Turcuato said.
“All of these, it became my way into the sports community.”
True sportsman
Starting a career in sports would be the perfect way to launch a successful path.
As a sportsman, there’s no better way to foster a career than being associated with something you love to do.
“I am a sportsman. From the beginning, I played basketball, volleyball, swimming, and tennis. Now, or just recently, golf. But I’m not world-class in a lot of them. I compete. I like the competition, I like the exercise. It keeps me sharp, physically. That’s why I continue to do so,” Turcuato said.
From sports broadcasting, Turcuato also started to learn the business of sports in general. He even cracked the roster of then PBA commissioner Noli Eala as part of the marketing group.
As a sportsman, there’s no better way to foster a career than being associated with something you love to do.
“I think a lot of it had something to do with sports. The Commissioner’s Office of the PBA, gave me a peak at how to run the league, under Commissioner Noli Eala. Current Commissioner Willie Marcial was the media bureau chief then. We were in the same ManCom (management committee) together. Willie was dealing with teams, with the league,” Turcuato said.
While in the PBA, Turcuato watched and learned how to be more innovative and that’s probably the biggest takeaway of the leadership of Eala.
“I’ve learned from Noli, probably, his mindset of innovation. He’s thinking of ideas. What’s new? How can we come up with something new? The PBA All-Star Games in the province was his idea. Even playing overseas. He introduced it. We went to Jakarta and we had an overseas game there,” Turcuato said.
His experience in broadcasting gave him stints in Solar, ABS-CBN and, on a bigger scale, FOX Network Group — where programs like National Geographic, FOX Entertainment and FOX Sports — were being carried on by cable providers to local households.
“On the broadcast side, I actually even produced shows for ABS-CBN. I was the head of sports for Solar and then with the FOX Network Group, just learning the whole media business. That’s very helpful, especially now that you have to constantly adjust to social media, digital. People who are now more attuned to the mobile device than the traditional ones. That kind of adjustment really trained me because you also have to adjust in all those phases,” Turcuato said.
“I consider myself an expert in the media space because ABS-CBN, Solar, FOX Network Group, all these different media entities with over 20 years of experience, and then all of them had to do with sports and getting to know personalities in the industry and how it works. All of it was good preparation.”
Student of the game
At ABS-CBN, Turcuato learned how to make the nature of business more profitable.
“For ABS-CBN, I think Carlo Katigbak was a very business-minded person. How does a business run? It needs to be profitable. Profit and loss were his mindset. It became very important, especially for FOX,” Turcuato added.
“My boss at FOX was Indian, and what I’ve learned from him was, he knew how to integrate the left brain and and right brain. In the media, you have to be creative. But it shouldn’t only be creative. You need to make it sustainable and match it to the industry business. You need to balance creativity with the business itself.”
Turcuato added that he learned the value of the content business at Solar Entertainment.
“With Solar, that’s where I learned the content business,” he said.
“Peter Chan Liong was my boss. He was very knowledgeable with content in general, especially the western content. He knew how valuable the Hollywood content was,” he added.
Now, Turcuatco is affiliated with Smart, where he serves as the first vice president and head of Sports.
There, he said he is bracing for the expectations from the top bosses who demanded success and continued excellence.
“Boss MVP (Manuel Pangilinan) and even ASP (Al Panlilio), they reminded you of a constant standard of excellence. Regardless of what happens, they are always trying to figure out how to be better. You cannot keep up with your own success, even failures. Either success or failure, it doesn’t matter,” he said.
“From Mr. Pangilinan and Mr. Panlilio, keeping up with your own success is not the right destination. They don’t feel satisfied and they always set the bar higher.”
“That’s really what I appreciate about them. You succeed, you win, let’s celebrate and move forward. How do we win again? It’s always been like that. They don’t feel they’ve arrived at a certain point in time,” Turcuato said.
As sports executive, Turcuato shares the love and passion of Filipinos, particularly those who brought glory to the country like Hidilyn Diaz and Gilas Pilipinas.
It’s no surprise why Turcuato craves to see more successful feats with Smart playing a key role.
“I’m hoping for another gold medal in the Olympics. I think that would be the biggest news — if it happens again,” he said.
“We’ve got a few, semi-longshot, but possible, with EJ Obiena and Carlos Yulo. And even Hidylyn Diaz, if she qualifies. You’ll never know with the boxers also to get those gold medals,” Turcuato said, sounding like a true sportsman.
True enough, sports had led Turcuato back to the Philippines. It’s a love affair that lasts forever.