Wednesday, February 27, 2008 Miler 57 years ago By Ramon Dacawi
IN HIS editorial for the Mountain Breeze, the student publication of what is now the Benguet State University (BSU), journalist Primitivo Mijares wrote in 1948 or 49: "If you look at Willy Faustino, the best in the 1500 meter-run in the Philippines today, you will not think he is really the Philippines' best. It is not that he does not deserve it because he ran against the best in the open meet but it is because Willy Faustino is so unassuming he is even shy talking about his laurels."
Willy, an Ibaloi from Pinsao, Baguio, was then a junior at BSU, then the La Trinidad Agricultural High School.
As per the Mt. Breeze account, Willy earned a berth to run the event in the National Open after he topped it in the Interscholastic Meet in Tuguegarao, Cagayan.
"Trailing R. Camama, his teammate, almost all the way, Willy thrilled the athletic fans in Rizal Memorial Field when with a burst of speed in the last 50 meters he breasted the tape just a fraction of a second ahead of Camama. Time was 4 minutes and 27.7 seconds," the news report said.
The following school year, the quiet Ibaloi athlete finished his secondary course at the Baguio City High School.
Just before he graduated, the March 25, 1950 issue of Philippines Free Press (PFP) carried a photo of the victorious track team of the Bureau of Public Schools (BPS) being congratulated by Philippine Amateur Athletic Federation Jorge Vargas.
As team captain, Willy was on the foreground holding the over-all team trophy.
Another PFP photo, captioned "Willy Faustino, the durable Igorot," showed the Ibaloi runner by his lonesome on the track.
Still another showed him leading the BPS team to a 1-2-3 finish in the 1500 meters.
Behind Willy were teammates H. Camana and V. Rarabia, whom he had trailed in the shorter 800 meters.
A news clipping without a date but most likely from the Gold Ore, then the official student paper of the Baguio Colleges Foundation (BCF), said BCF would no longer be left behind in sports.
"Heading the college neophytes around the tracks is Willy Faustino, an Interscholastic and National Open title holder of the 800 and 1500 meter events," the item read. "A product of the Baguio City High School, Willy says 'there's no place like home'."
Willy's son Horacio, now barangay chairman of Pinsao Proper here, also knows his father went to the University of the Philippines (UP) as athletic scholar, in the company of Melecio Besara, another be-medaled Ibaloi runner from Bokod, Benguet.
Horacio remembers Besara saying his father came home and never returned to UP.
"I didn't know where he went to college first -- UP or BCF," Horacio admitted. "I hardly listened to his stories and now have to rely on these clippings and photos he kept to trace his achievements," he said.
He opened his father's old blue album and read the BCF news clipping. There's no place like home, his father had said. He must have gone to UP first.
When he met Besara the other Sunday, Horacio was gripped by sudden longing to know what he had taken for granted.
He wanted to know how his old man, who died in 1995, had really fared in athletics. But Besara, at 82 and gripped by dementia, could not tell.
He could not remember where went the more than 80 medals he himself had captured during his prime on the track.
"Your father was the country's best in the 1500 meters from 1948 to 1949," Horacio's uncle, retired schoolteacher and former baseball catcher and coach Ben Dimas told him.
Horacio went home and opened a box his mother Daminia has been keeping for years.
Inside were his father's wallet and world war veteran's cap Willy Faustino and Besara were in their teens when they fought with the 66th Infantry Regiment of the United States Armed Forces. Both were privates.
Inside the box were several athletic medals -- more gold than silvers and bronzes. Etched on the smooth backside of the gold were "Highest Individual Pointer 1949-50," "1500 m. -- Davao 1949-50," Mountain Province Athletic Meet -- 1500 -- 1949-50," "15000 -- BPSIAA -- Tuguegarao 1949" and "1950 National Championship."
Two photos on the album showed Willy and his crew that built the intake tower of the Ambuklao Dam in Bokod, Benguet in the mid 1950s.
Others were taken when he was an Army private in the war, as a scout under Troop 96, of reunions with relatives and fellow veterans, of his grandparents and with some of his eight children when they were toddlers.
The others, all in sepia, were with his fellow athletes on the track, the victory stand (including one with fellow Baguio runner William Muller) and as a team.
His days on the track over, Willy settled down in Pinsao, farming the land, raising cattle and building houses as a carpenter.
"Willy Faustino lives a very clean and ordered life," continued Mijares's editorial.
"He is a very conscientious student and you will often see him watering his plants when other boys are just looking around. He does smoke unlike many of the boys today who think that smoking is part of life. He followed rules religiously. Ask his coach, Mr. Felix Remigio."
Ask his eldest son, Horacio. Or coach Dimas, his cousin who will be watching at the sidelines when the Cordillera Games begin this morning in La Trinidad, Benguet.
