Francisco Vestil, member of the Philippine basketball team which finished 12th in the 1948 London Olympics, died of a lingering illness yesterday noon in Cebu. He was 86.
This was relayed to the Philippine STAR yesterday by his contemporary and former Philippine Olympic Committee president Julian Malonso.
Malonso said Vestil, who had played for the UST and Visayas Institute (now the University of the Visayas) before and after the war, was, until his death, the oldest living Filipino basketball Olympian.
He was flagbearer of the Olympic team to the London Games, and is among 99 nominees for the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame.
During his glory days, where he played side by side with Gabby and Fely Fajardo, Lauro Mumar, Eduardo Decena and Ramoncito Campos, Vestil, nicknamed Six-by Six, he was instrumental in giving UST a number of titles after World War II.