Ernie Gawilan, one of this year’s favourites on the Philippine Paralympic team, has an amazing story.
The 30-year-old who hails from Davao City, became one of Team Philippines’ top bets after being crowned the most-medalled Filipino para-athlete in the 2018 Asian Para Games in Jakarta, Indonesia. Gawilan took home three golds and two silvers in the Asiad after dominating the ASEAN para swimming scene as a seven-time gold champion. He also made strides when he competed in the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Ernie is currently competing in Tokyo for the 2021 Paralympics, where he will carry his country’s flag in the closing ceremony on 5th September. Ernie’s first win, however, was in 1991, when he survived an attempted abortion that left him with no legs and an underdeveloped left arm.
In a 2014 interview with SPIN.ph, he joked, “I must have been a good swimmer even in my mother’s womb because I survived the abortion. I just swam.”
According to several reports, Ernie’s mother decided to have an abortion to hide her pregnancy. Although her son survived, his troubles in life were far from over. His father abandoned him, and, when he was only 5 months old, his mother died of cholera.
“I really had a bad trip,” he said. “I used to crawl to walk.”
Despite his more than rocky start in life, his story doesn’t end there. Ernie’s grandparents welcomed the little boy into their home, raising him as their own. Growing up was difficult at times; he endured cruel bullying and teasing because of his appearance, Manila Standard reported. He has credited his faith in God for helping him push through hard times.
His life was forever transformed when a businessman noticed him at 9 years old – and convinced his grandfather to send him to a centre for youth with disabilities in Davao City. At Our Lady of Victory Training Centre, he met the Maryknoll Sisters of St. Dominic, and in 2000, he moved to Samal Island to work as a housekeeper for them. At Samal Island, he discovered his love of water.
“When I am in the water my physical disability was not visible,” Ernie told SPIN.ph. “I look like a normal person.”
One day, a swimming coach at the foundation’s beach resort, Jude Corpuz, saw Ernie’s desire to swim and the young boy joined a swim team for individuals with disabilities. By 2008 he had been entered into his first competition, where he came in second place despite having forgotten his swimsuit and having to swim in much heavier cargo shorts. He immediately caught the attention of the winner of that race, Arnel Aba. Aba brought Ernie to join the Philippines national team with him – and the rest is history.
Speaking in a 2017 short film, Gawilan explained, “I used to hide myself…I used to be ashamed of myself, ashamed of why I was born like this. I felt like I escaped from a shell [when swimming]. There’s a purpose for us in this world. We need to be fighters in life.”
Gawilan has been transparent about his Catholic faith and God’s transformative role in his life. He’s been captured on camera praying with a rosary, and he doesn’t shy away from giving credit to his faith in both media interviews and on social media. Back in 2016, while he was training for the Paralympics that year, he gave thanks to God for his recovery after falling ill.
“Last month I got sick, sir, but I was able to get back because of my faith in God. Without Him I cannot make it, I trust everything in Him,” he said. Meanwhile, on social media he has been open about his deep-rooted faith, re-posting bible verses and sharing messages with his followers like “God is the key”. In a 2019 instagram post, he thanked a young teammate for writing a piece about his faith. In the piece, then-12 year-old Rose Charlize Bustos expressed her admiration for Ernie, or “Kuya Ernie,” as “we call him in our swimming club.”
“I did not care about God before,” she quoted Ernie as saying. “I blamed Him of what I have become, of how He created me, and my ending to be unloved and alone.” That all changed, according to Ernie, when he encountered God through swimming. His young friend Rose concluded, “Indeed, God has never abandoned him.” Instead, “He gave him the life that Kuya Ernie never imagined.”
Ernie has now wrapped up his Tokyo Paralympics Campaign, qualifying 10th place in the men’s 100m backstroke S7 competition today.
He competed in three events in total and qualified for the finals once. Although he narrowly missed out on a finals spot in the men’s 200m individual SM7, he bounced back in the men’s 400m freestyle S7 becoming the first Filipino para swimmer to qualify for a Paralympic finals and finished in sixth place.
Late-term abortion is sadly a reality in Ireland. Back in November 2020, we reported that the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly refused to address the issue of babies born alive after abortion in Ireland, as revealed in a shocking then newly-released study from University College Cork which was published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Gript’s John McGuirk wrote: “If any other human being in Ireland was being left to die a painful death without palliative care, and doctors were begging for intervention, it would lead every news bulletin.
“…But because these children are unwanted, their suffering goes unreported. The fact that doctors are begging for aid goes unreported.
The risk of covering this news, let’s be clear, is that it might turn public opinion against abortion in some circumstances. And since that cannot be allowed to happen, the suffering of these children is widely considered to be a price worth paying.”
Ernie Gwalian survived an abortion and became a national sporting hero. His story should inspire us to give every child a chance.