By Anne Renee Suarez
Photos By Sonny Espiritu
With a vision to bring back nationalism and the true meaning of being a Filipino, sports broadcaster Chino Trinidad was roused to put up a platform – Pilipinas HD – for the great stories of our forefathers.
The veteran sports broadcaster came up with the idea of creating a channel that is purely about the Filipinos – culture, ways, traditions, heroes, etc – through sports, its victories and defeats, realizing each and every Filipino has a story to tell.
“Sports taught me how to appreciate our athletes without condition. But the moment is fleeting. After a victory, after a defeat, their story is forgotten,” Trinidad tells The Standard in an interview.
“I realized we needed a platform that will celebrate who we are as Filipinos,” the sports broadcaster exclaims.
Trinidad elaborates that he is tired and sick of the news, television, and social media that tell nothing but crime, violence, and negativity that drown stories that should be fed to the masses instead of those unsavory tales.
“Enough of the negativity, enough of the showbiz slapping each other. There are hundreds of Filipino sports heroes whose exploits we don’t even know of. Who knows of a Teófilo Yldefonso, who knows of a Miguel White? These are men who are not just athletes, but Filipinos who died for their country,” says Trinidad.
After the two-year process of putting up the platform that stemmed from wanting to produce stories he knew were worth telling, his “passion-project” finally became a reality.
On the question of how this channel is any different from other lifestyle channels, the broadcaster says Pilipinas HD, in its truest sense, is a movement.
“First and foremost, we’re not here to compete. If this was merely profit-driven, I don’t think it would even get off. We don’t need eyeballs. We’re just here to tell stories. This one, it digs deeper into who we really are. That’s why it’s HD, for a ‘higher definition’ of a true Filipino,” the broadcaster concluded.
The launching event, held at BGC, was also attended by then actress-singer Lirio Vital; Mon Fernandez, a Philippine basketball legend and commissioner of the Philippine Sports Commission under President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s administration, Recah Trinidad, painter Jun Aquino, and sculptor Fred Caedo, to name a few.
Pilipinas HD will be available for free in SkyCable and Cignal until today only.
