The Alas Pilipinas men's national team arrives at the Kaohsiung International Airport, November 16, 2025. Handout/PNVF
MANILA -- The Alas Pilipinas men's national volleyball team arrived in Taiwan on Sunday for a two-week training camp, in preparation for their campaign in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games next month.
The Alas Men will compete in six friendly matches against powerhouse Taiwanese squads in their Kaohsiung training camp.
"We're going to prepare well for the SEA Games and we really need to train together since we came from a long break, too," said Alas veteran Marck Espejo.
The Alas men's squad features the same players who represented the country in the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championships in September, where they finished 19th among 32 teams.
PNVF president Ramon "Tats" Suzara said that also on the team are two young guns from University of Santo Tomas—Al-Bukarie Sali and JJ Macam—and Lucca Mamone.
"I'm super happy and grateful for this opportunity. I used to just dream of being part of Alas, and now it finally happened," said Sali, a 6-foot-5 opposite spiker. "I'm really excited because I used to join their training before. The intensity is so high and it's a big help for me."
Team captain Bryan Bagunas remains in Japan where he's playing for the Osaka Bluteon in the ongoing SV.League.
The men's team is hoping to again reach the podium in the SEA Games, after their historic silver medal achievement in the 2019 edition of the tournament that was hosted by the Philippines.
Bagunas, Espejo, Kim Malabunga and Owa Retamar were key figures in that run.
Since then, Alas finished fifth in both the Hanoi and Phnom Penh Games as the country continues to chase a breakthrough gold, with the program's best results so far being two silver medals—including a finals appearance in 1977—and five bronze finishes.
Meanwhile, the Alas women are training under Brazilian coach Jorge Edson Souza de Brito at the Gameville in Mandaluyong.
Among the players regularly attending the preparations are team captain Jia de Guzman, Eya Laure, Vanessa Gandler, Dawn Macandili-Catindig and Jen Nierva.