Efren “Bata” Reyes comes to the aid of cancer patient

Playing for charity, billiards great Efren “Bata” Reyes won the recent Villards Cup, nosing out longtime partner Francisco “Django” Bustamante, 11-10, in a well-attended finals at the StarMall Alabang in Muntinlupa City recently.
After the nerve-frazzling victory, the 57-year-old Reyes, who pocketed the winner’s purse of P300,000, said he was giving part of his winnings to help Jhon Kristopher Dequito, a two-year-old cancer patient from Binangonan, Rizal, and 10-year-old Teresita Maribao of Potrero, Malabon, who is suffering from leukemia.
The most-written about player in contemporary billiards history, Hall of Famer Bata Reyes is not only a pool phenom, but a man with a heart of gold as well.
Born into poverty, Reyes knows the bitter sorrow and hardship the less fortunate members of society have to endure, most of all the sick and afflicted. Bata himself could finish only second year at the Arellano High School due to financial difficulties. But through sheer guts, fierce determination and strong personal discipline, he was able to beat the odds and become rich and famous. His dramatic rise to pool prominence started in 1985 when the benevolent Puyat brothers—Jose “Popit” and Aristeo “Putch”—took him under their wing.
A devoted family man, Reyes, when asked by an interviewer what he would do with his $60,000 prize money after winning the 1994 World 9-Ball Championship in Cardiff, Wales, shyly said he would buy his wife a car, a Honda CRV, put some of it in the bank and share the rest with his eight siblings.
What then is the compelling reason behind Bata’s popularity? Despite his numerous international successes, Reyes also loses, attesting to the fact that he is only human. In defeat, Reyes, also called “The Magician” by the sports media, has emerged a bigger man, accepting his losses gracefully, meekly smiling and shaking his head.
“Talagang ganyan. Hindi palaging panalo (Life’s like that. You can’t win them all),” he said.
Bata’s triumph in the Villards Cup marks the opening salvo of two major tournaments in the country. Starting Sept. 3, the three-day 2011 PartyPoker.net World Pool Masters tourney gets going at the SM City North Edsa Mall in Quezon City. This will be followed by the World Cup of Pool (Sept. 6 to 11), also at the same venue.
Philippine Sportswriters Association awardee Dennis Orcollo is defending Masters champion, while China’s Fu Jianbo and Li Hewen are staking their World Cup of Pool crown against a formidable field that includes two-time World Cup titlists Reyes and Bustamante, who won the inaugural tourney in 2006 and later in 2009, and former world No. 1 Orcollo and two-time world champ Ronnie Alcano.
As an avid follower of pool, I’m pretty sure that Filipino cue artists will dominate both the World Masters and World Cup of Pool tournaments this year. Over time, several local players have seen action—and emerged triumphant—in many tough international competitions, among them world champions Reyes, Bustamante and Alcano.
Billiards diehards praise them not only for their limitless skills with the cue sticks, but for their humble ways and honesty.
Reyes is a classic example. Even though he is 57 years old and considered by his detractors as past his prime, Reyes is not yet retiring. Thoroughly mild-mannered, Reyes belies the “gunslinger” in him. At the pool table, Reyes shows no mercy, surprising his opponents with his awesome safety games and magical shots.