Orticats.ph holds Pamingming Football Cup to raise funds for their spay and neuter projects

Orticats.ph is a non-profit organization that helps and rescues abandoned neonatal kittens.

It all started when founder and cat lover, Mina Filamor- Badajos was working as an architect in one of the top fast food chains in the country. Her office was located in Ortigas City, home to many stray cats. “I would see a lot of stray cats during my break time. I started feeding them and playing with them. That’s how Orticats.ph came about (in short for Ortigas cats). Although we share the same advocacy with Cats of Ortigas (COO), we are a totally different entity—we have our own community and social media platforms. In addition to this, we focus on fostering and bringing our feline friends home. Our Instagram page was already launched when I discovered about the COO community on Facebook,” Mina recalled. Her sister, Tina Filamor who is also a cat lover, influenced her to do something more than just feeding them. “I was the one who influenced Mina to rescue neonatal kittens. It’s always been my passion and advocacy. It’s not an easy job because they are like to human beings. They need to be loved, fed, and cared for,” she added.

Orticats.ph founders, Tina and Mina Filamor-Badajos

In May 19, 2018, Orticats.ph was finally launched. “Our original plan was to be a page that focused on reposting cat photos and videos that would bring positive vibes to our followers. However, our content evolved. We started to post inspiring and tragic stories of all the cats and kittens that we’ve rescued along the way. I remember posting a story of two abandoned neonatal kittens named, Krissy and Tala who were left out to die. People started to share our posts and our Instagram page started to gain popularity,” Mina shared. The Filamor sisters were able to foster/rescue around 50 plus kittens. Most of them survived and were adopted by loving families. “They all have different rescue stories. However, one thing they have in common is that they were all a byproduct of an irresponsible community that is not familiar with spay and neuter procedures. We basically want to prevent pet overpopulation,” Tina pointed out.

The hardworking team behind the first Pamingming Football Cup

Last August 11, 2019, Orticats.ph held their first ever fundraising event in the Marikina Sports Complex. “We have upcoming spay and neuter projects in Tondo Manila and we need to raise funds because we plan to do it for free,” Mina shared. According to the sisters, they decided to come up with the Pamingming Football Cup because of the big following of the sport. “It’s really playing for a cause. We wanted to do something different and fun,” she added. The Pamingming football league was a one-day league that consisted of twenty teams and two divisions—women’s open and mixed open. “We appreciate all those who participated in the league. We really targeted 32 teams but sadly, we were not able to reach the target. It’s our first time to hold something like this therefore, we’re still very grateful with how it turned out. This would not be the last,” Tina shared.

In the women’s division, Outkast FC bagged the gold while Down Under FC and Superbad FC won second place and third place respectively.

In the mixed division (cup), Panna FC bagged the gold while Fun FC and Grant FC won second place and third place respectively.

In the mixed division (plate), Maningning Sparkles FC bagged the gold while Manaoag United FC and WCC Ala Buelo FC won second place and third place respectively.

The Filamor sisters have indeed come a long way since the launch of Orticats.ph. As for their future plans, they plan to make it a sustainable organization. “We want to rescue, foster, and put for adoption more cats or dogs until there are no more strays that need to be rescued. We also want the Pamingming Cup to be a yearly event. We want to encourage more people to give back by participating in our fundraising programs because aside from helping these animals, we get to help our society as well,” Mina concluded.

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look and do nothing.”- Albert Einstein

Orticats.ph would like to thank the following sponsors/partners: