Francisco “Django” Bustamante was 12 when he picked up the game of billiards in his Tarlac, Tarlac. Regular players in the billiards hall near the public market would shoo him away. He took time out from selling banana cue (deep-fried, caramelized bananas) and boiled peanuts by squeezing in a few minutes of practice.
Today Django is a Tarlaqueño who can never be turned away by his province mates. Provincial and city officials gave him a ticker tape parade at Tarlac Plaza for winning a gold medal at the Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, last year.
Together with Antonio Lining, he beat the Koreans Jeong Young-Hwa and Kim Won-Suk, 11-9, in the 9-ball doubles for the Philippines’ second of three gold medals.
The Asian Games feat is one of many feathers in Django’s cap. He used to stand on empty soft drink bottle cases so he could reach the billiards table.
Now based in Kiel, Germany, he has already won $107,200 from various tournaments last year. In 2001, he earned $41,030.
In 1988 he earned his biggest prize when he pocketed $122,000 with victories in Denver, Tulsa, Nashville, Columbus 10-Ball Open and the Reno Open 9-Ball Championship, where he beat the current US Number One player, Earl “The Pearl” Strickland.
Fellow champion Efren “Bata” Reyes is Number One so far in the player money list in 2002 with $112,900 while Strickland is third at $102,700.
Other Filipinos in the list are Jose “Amang” Parica, one of country’s early billiards greats, at No. 10 with $38,220.00 and Filipino-Canadian Alex Pagulayan at No. 13 with $32,230.00.
Django was in school while a sister managed an eatery beside the billiards hall that his brother owned.
Django improved his game there, often missing his classes to play. He studied the moves of older players while listening to their advice. He played alone on an empty table using three balls already used in a nearby table. He waited until the next three balls from another pocket became available.
“ I had one thing in mind: practice and practice. I knew I would be good at the game. I didn’t want my skill to go to waste,” Django, 39, said.
He was fielded in tournaments in Tarlac, and started making the rounds of Pampanga and the rest of Central Luzon. He went to Manila in 1985 and campaigned at the Coronado Lanes in Cubao, owned by the Puyat family, later his and Bata’s benefactors.
URL : http://www.planetphilippines.com/
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Approved on Tue, Apr 29, 2003 @ 00:00:00 CDT by admin
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