Farewell to the Trigger

Basketball fans know Allan Caidic as the Triggerman, the deadly left-handed three-point shooter who was on five PBA champion teams. But it’s an open secret that the Triggerman’s Trigger was his wife Milotte. She was the inspiration that triggered Caidic’s amazing basketball career, the love of his life, the woman who made him complete.

Last Thursday, Milotte passed away. She was 57. For about a year, Milotte battled cancer courageously with the Triggerman and their two daughters Mariel (nicknamed Marisse), 32, and Marla (nicknamed Inah), 30, by her side. It was during a family trip to Guam last year when Milotte wasn’t her usual self. Back home, she consulted her doctor about a bleeding condition and was later diagnosed with cervical cancer. Milotte underwent chemotherapy, radiation and brachytherapy. There were positive signs along the way as the isolated lump in her cervix became progressively smaller. The family celebrated the successes with visits to the National Shrine of St. Padre Pio in Sto. Tomas, Batangas.

But complications set in and last January, Milotte went through a prolonged surgery to address residual lesions in the cervix area and to include a total hysterectomy. She recovered, returned home and spent a prayerful Easter with the family. However, hospital stays became more frequent and last May 30, she checked in at St. Luke’s Medical Center, Global City and took palliative treatment until her passage. The night before she passed, relatives and close friends, including the Triggerman’s buddy Jerry Codiñera, visited. At 7 a.m. last Thursday, Milotte joined our Lord in heaven.

It was in 1985 when Caidic was introduced to Milotte over the phone by her uncle, the late basketball referee Tony de Jesus. They became phone pals but it wasn’t until after a tune-up game preparing for the Pesta Sukan that Caidic met Milotte face to face. When Caidic returned from Brunei where the Pesta Sukan was held, he visited Milotte at her grandmother’s home in Sampaloc with teammate Peter Aguilar, Japeth’s father. Caidic recalled that when the Philippine team was feted at a PBA game after bringing home the silver at the 1990 Asian Games, he was excused from attending because of the “pamanhikan” at Milotte’s family home in Fairview. They were married in January 1991 and in November that same year, Marisse was born while the Triggerman shot 79 points in a PBA game.

Caidic turned 61 last Saturday and at Milotte’s wake in the Loyola Memorial Chapels on Commonwealth Avenue, thanked the Lord for the blessing of a life together. San Miguel Corp. sports director Alfrancis Chua, PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial, Jimmy Mariano, Hector Calma, Codiñera, Joey Mendoza, Bong Ravena, Benjie Paras, Danny Ildefonso, the late Samboy Lim’s former wife Lelen Berberabe and many, many more came to pay their respects. There will be a 9 a.m. Mass at the Loyola Chapels on Commonwealth today before Milotte is laid to rest at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina. The Trigger will be missed by those whose lives she touched and also those who knew of her from a distance but were inspired by her loving example.