FROM a former boxing title holder, Dindo Castañares has reached a new low.
Last Monday, the former World Boxing Federation junior welterweight champion was arrested by the Talisay City Police for playing an illegal coins game—locally known as hantak, in Sitio Tunga, Barangay Tangke.
The former boxing star had to stay at the jail overnight before he was released the next day after paying a fine of P1,000 for violating Presidential Decree 1602—the anti-illegal gambling law.
“As a first-time offender, he was fined P1,000,” said SPO1 Victorio Morales, the PNP detention cell officer on duty.
A police team, led by Insp. Jaime Santillan, arrested Castañares along with two others—Ramises Enriquez, 25; and Ernie Orongan, 27—for playing hantak in Sitio Tunga.
The Talisay City Police Station sent its alert team to the area after it got a call from a concerned citizen about a group of people playing the illegal coins game.
The hantak players were reportedly causing disturbance in the neighborhood.
But most of the players, some of them bettors, scampered away upon noticing the Santillan-led police team approaching their direction.
Apart from arresting Castañares and two others, lawmen recovered three 25 coins used for the game at the scene.
The Talisay policemen themselves, could not even believe they arrested a former WBF boxing champion.
It was a sad fall for Castañares, who had a bright future in front of him when he was at the height of his career. He was among the first batch of New Generation ALA Boys who were nurtured by Cebu boxing patron Antonio Lopez Aldeguer since they were amateurs.
He earned his moniker “The Diesel” for his punching prowess, hand speed and a lot of heart that earned him the Philippine 140-lb. title just five fights after he turned professional.
However, as fast as his rise into stardom in local boxing was, so was his downfall. A romantic failing allegedly led him to be hooked on illegal drugs.
His last fight under the banner of the ALA gym was back in November 2005 when he lost to Daigoro Yamamoto in Japan.
Since then, the ALA Gym management refused to renew his boxing license, forcing Castañares to seek another manager.
Losses
Australia-based Cebuano Dido Bohol came to the rescue and took him to Sydney but his fortunes didn’t change—he lost three successive fights.
He suffered a TKO loss in the second round against middleweight Daniel Dawson in September 2006; a unanimous decision setback to welterweight Ryan Waters on Nov. 3, 2006; and a second round knockout to junior welterweight Allan Luxford just 14 days later.
After a night in jail, the former boxing champion resolved to get back in shape and to train regularly, not at the ultra modern ALA Gym, but at the RWS International gym as he prepares for another fight Australia. (GC with RCM)
