WBO head both a chef, gourmand

MANDAUE, Cebu—WBO president Francisco “Paco” Valcarcel, Pinoy Pride 31’s guest of honor for last night’s event, arrived early for the prefight dinner hosted by ALA patriarch Tony Aldeguer and his son Michael, president of ALA International, at the Aldeguer’s beach house in Lanao.

Paco had flown all the way from Puerto Rico, for “The Clash of Champions” and, more importantly, to present Donnie Nietes, the longest-reigning Filipino world champion, the much-coveted WBO ring. The ring is encrusted with diamond, ruby and emerald dust, and only two Filipinos have been given such a ring. The other one is eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao.

The 67-year-old Paco, who has served the WBO for two decades, was busy inside the hot kitchen, a most unlikely area to find a WBO president, when our group arrived at the beach house.

Tony explained that Paco wanted us to try his famous boiled bananas cooked the Puerto Rican way. Valcarcel explained that the simple dish was supposed to neutralize the bad elements in pork, a regular fare in Puerto Rican households, just as it is on the Filipino dinner table.

“The banana should go very well with your sumptuous lechon and its crispy skin,” Paco said, as he offered us a piece.

“Filipinos should be eating this on a regular basis because the Philippines is a pork-eating country. I will give you the recipe. All you need are several pieces of unripe, green bananas, olive oil and garlic, which you will boil together in water for 10 minutes. After that length of time, the bananas should be cooked and ready to eat.

All night long at the huge dinner table, Paco talked about food as everybody sampled his boiled bananas. Tony said the man is both a good chef and a gourmand.

If the subject is food, Paco said he could talk all night. But boxing? He is tired of the subject, although he did answer some questions from the scribes, one of them about the WBO welterweight belt stripped from Floyd Mayweather Jr.

As of Friday night, Paco said Mayweather still has 14 days to make an appeal to the grievance committee.

The Philippines is not new to the WBO chief. He said he was here to witness the very first Z Gorres fight versus Fernando Montiel of Mexico.

“It was held right here in Cebu,” Paco said.

Paco has a 10-year-old granddaughter who is half-Filipino. His son is married to a Filipino and the family currently resides in Laredo, Texas.