Anthony Villanueva in great need

I read with mixed feelings the news that the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) will enshrine in the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame nine of the greatest Filipino athletes and a (basketball) team “that took the country to unprecedented heights” in ceremonies at the Manila Hotel on May 5.

The awardees include boxing icons Gabriel “Flash” Elorde, Francisco “Pancho Villa” Guilledo, Ceferino Garcia and Jose “Cely” Villanueva and Cely’s son, Anthony; track and field’s Miguel White and Simeon Toribio, although the press release said Teofilo Yldefonso, also an awardee but who actually represents swimming, and cager Carlos Loyzaga and the Philippine team that won third place in the 1954 World Basketball Championships.

White, Toribio, Yldefonso, Jose and Anthony won the first six of nine Olympic medals that the Philippines has won since it started participating in the Olympics in 1924. The Philippines has actually won 12 but three of these were in “demonstration” sports: Arianne Cerdena, gold in bowling in the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and bantamweight Stephen Fernandez and featherweight Bea Lucero both bronze medalists in taekwondo in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Yldefonso bagged the country’s first bronze medal at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics and a second bronze in 1932 at Los Angeles. The 1932 Olympics was the most productive in the history of Philippine Olympic participation as high jumper Simeon Toribio and bantamweight boxer Cely won a bronze each. White captured the bronze in the 400-meter hurdles in the 1936 Olympics. Anthony, a featherweight, won the country’s first Olympic silver medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, losing a controversial decision to Russian Stanislav Stephaskin.

Of these nine awardees, only two are alive: Loyzaga and Villanueva. The last time I saw Loyzaga was at the Brisbane airport, sometime in 2003. The “Great Difference” is an Australian citizen.

The one with whom I have personal ties is Anthony Villanueva, whose wife, Liezel Deldia, called a few days ago to say that Anthony was confined at the 45-bed Ospital ng Cabuyao in Laguna. She told me that Anthony, whose right side is completely paralyzed, seemed to have had a stroke again. 

Prior to Anthony’s return to the Philippines sometime in 1996 or 1997, I saw him in New York where he worked as a security guard in the Philippine Consulate. I was then chairman of the PSC and I was meeting with a number of Fil-American groups in various cities in the US to drum up support for Philippine sports. I encouraged him to come home even as he threatened to sell his Olympic silver medal for lack of funds, which he likened to Cassius Clay’s defiant act of throwing into a Kentucky river the gold medal he won in the Rome Olympics in protest over the treatment of Afro-Americans (first called Negroes and then blacks or colored) by American society.

Anthony expressed bitterness at his situation and what he called the uncaring attitude of Philippine society in general towards its own so-called sports heroes. I nevertheless encouraged him to come home to receive the funds due him as provided by the PSC in its implementing rules and regulations, during my watch.

Shortly after he received his incentive, Anthony had what was to be his first stroke and was confined at the Delgado Hospital in Kamuning. I visited him and periodically, especially during Christmas season, I would get in touch with him through Liezel who was then working at the Dulcinea in Tomas Morato Avenue in Quezon City. Because of the distance between Dulcinea and Cabuyao, Liezel had to quit and devote more time to Anthony and to tend their stall in the Cabuyao market.

I doubt if Anthony can make it to Manila Hotel on May 5, given his condition. I am due to visit him in the next few days. In the meantime, a son of mine, Quezon City First District Councilor Joseph or Sep, himself a boxing buff, will visit Anthony.

Anthony turned 65 on March 18. He was my sparring partner when, at the age of 10, in 1957, I was enrolled by my father Felipe, together with my two older brothers, Luis (Sonny) and George, in boxing lessons during that summer at the old Philippine Boxing Association gym in Legarda near San Sebastian College. Our trainer was Cely and we were privileged to be in the company of, among others, Dommy Ursua, Tanny Campo, Leo Espinosa, Bonnie Espinosa and Little Cezar.

I’m sure Anthony’s impoverished state is not unique among our boxers and athletes. I hope the incoming administration will find creative ways of assisting sports heroes who did their share for flag and country. I am glad that the PSC is setting aside P100,000 for Anthony and other sports heroes. That should help.