Remembering BOSS Danding

By Al S. Mendoza

 

I happen to have a ton of memories about Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., the San Miguel Corp. patriarch, who had passed on June 16 just two days after he turned 85 on June 14.

He had been ailing for some time, having undergone a kidney transplant about five, seven, years back.

Lung cancer caused his death, one medical bulletin went.

Another said he ultimately succumbed to cardiac arrest.

Whatever, he lived a full life.

His remains were cremated quickly as he had wished.

The pandemic derailed a wake, which would have surely drawn large crowds as he had friends all over the archipelago.

His most memorable nicknames were ECJ, Boss Danding and, yes, Danding.

His peers called him ECJ.

His subordinates and admirers called him BOSS Danding.

It was Cojuangco himself who coined BOSS, the acronym for “Basta Okey Sama Sama.”

I was with him three times in three different places in the world.

He headed the national delegation to the Asian Basketball Championship in Hong Kong in 1985, which I covered then for the Bulletin Today.

We appeared headed to win the tournament until organizers disqualified us for having fielded ineligible Americans we had deemed as naturalized Filipinos: Jeff Moore, Dennis Still and Chip Engelland.

His trusted ally goofed in securing Fiba documents in Lausanne, Switzerland, leading to the ouster of Moore, Still and Engelland.

“Not meant for us, Al,” he said.

But the three managed to join us in the 1985 World Basketball Club tournament in Girona, Spain, where the high-flying Samboy Lim starred in San Miguel Beer’s upset of powerhouse Brazil.

We didn’t win the title in Spain but Danding was so satisfied with our team’s performance overall that he rewarded our players with bonuses beyond their expectations.

After the tournament, I stayed behind to see the sights.

“Enjoy Spain, Al.  Don’t forget to watch a flamenco dance,” were Danding’s parting words.

Recah Trinidad and I boarded a train from Girona to Barcelona to visit the famed Museo Del Prado, whose most prized artwork is Picasso’s famed Guernica.

In the train ride, Recah and I downed a bottle of gin called Arpon.

A soldier on furlough took a couple of swigs with us and, soon after, Recah’s Spanish sounded just very fine.

We next went to Madrid, where, before we had our flamenco dinner fare, Recah and I watched a bullfight.

The searing sun knocked me down somewhat by the corrida.

“Just a minor heat stroke,” the doc said.

Water and electric fan solved it just as fast.

In July 1986, I was a dinner-guest of Danding in his plush Santa Monica home in Los Angeles, CA.

He was in his sixth month as an exile after he fled to the US following the fall of Marcos in the aftermath of the Edsa Revolt in February 1986.

Also present that night were Jake P. Ayson, the late Roger Flores then with Times Journal and Ron Jacobs (+), the famed American coach of Northern Cement also owned then by Cojuangco.

We had such a wonderful evening then and, if fate won’t be unkind, I might write a book about it.

I had lunch with Danding two weeks before he had the transplant.

That day, he did not have Coke, his favorite soda for decades.

“I finally heeded my doctor’s advice,” he said.  “Not too late to listen, Al?”

Rest well now, BOSS Danding. You’ve filled your plate the way you wanted it.

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments