Farewell to a dear friend
Amado (Ding) De Villa lived a full life and made every day count. For years, Ding suffered from kidney issues and did self-dialysis at home in Sydney where he lived since 2007. Even as his health was on the decline, Ding’s eyes always lit up when he talked about basketball, his favorite sport.
Ding played the game feverishly. He was a 5-8 guard-forward with the La Salle junior and senior varsities and was a practice player with 7-Up under coach Bay Mumar in the MICAA. When Ding gave up hope of playing big-time basketball to focus on a business career, he still found time to show up in inter-village tournaments for Bel-Air where he stayed. It was difficult to shake off playing the game he loved.
Even when he moved to Sydney, Ding wouldn’t stay away from basketball and worked as a special projects manager for Basketball New South Wales (BNSW) under CEO Danny Martinez, another Filipino migrant. Ding was well-loved in the Australian basketball community and some of his associates were former Opals women’s coach Damian Cotter and former Boomers player Ben Knight.
** * * So when news spread that Ding passed away in Sydney at the age of 69 last Tuesday morning, his basketball friends knew the game had lost a passionate enthusiast. He was confined in the hospital for over two months with doctors trying to treat the complications that had reached his liver. One of his closest Filipino friends in Sydney, Nito Lopez, said before Lim Eng Beng, there was Ding.
For four years, Ding saw action with the Archers in the NCAA. Although La Salle never won a title during his time, Ding became a campus legend as a rugged, go-go player. “In my last NCAA game, we played Ateneo which was unbeaten and needed only to beat us to take the championship outright,” once recalled Ding. “With seconds to go, we were up by one and Ateneo’s Chito Afable took a jump shot. I fouled him in the air and Chito fell on his hands. He got up, missed two free throws and we won. Ateneo then had to play Jose Rizal for the title and they lost. Although Ateneo never forgave me for that foul on Chito, some of my good friends are Ateneans like Ricky Palou and Fritz Gaston.” Ding’s senior coach was Tito Eduque and his teammates included Mike Bilbao, Julee Lim, Doy Escober, Pitloy Mirasol, Philip Tan, Alex Malixi, Jay Gervasio, Jimmy Brown, Fritz Sola and Joaqui Trillo.
After graduation, Ding worked two years at Citibank then was employed as a project manager in Kuwait for 10 years and another 10 years as an expat in Indonesia. Then, he joined Century21 Properties as vice president of business development. When Ding was in Kuwait, he met a Filipina nurse Wilma Rufila. In 1999, Wilma moved to Sydney and for eight years, Ding used to commute between Manila and Australia to visit her. Finally, Ding gave up everything in the Philippines, including several business interests, to be with Wilma and their son Andrew in Sydney. Ding’s three other children, Roselou, Amado Jr. and Roseann live abroad.
** * * Aside from his work with BNSW, Ding taught Facilities Management at the FMEdge Training Institute and coached the Ravenswood School girls varsity. In his final years, Ding laid the groundwork to establish joint projects with BNSW, New South Wales Institute of Sport, PSC, Department of Tourism, GAB and La Salle. Four years ago, he put up a coaching clinic for Juno Sauler, Allan Caidic and Jun Limpot in Sydney.
On a personal note, I knew Ding from a distance when we were schoolmates. I used to cheer for him in the stands during La Salle games. Fritz, now a GAB commissioner, got us together some five years ago and we began communicating often. I visited him in Sydney in 2013 and our bond grew stronger.
“Ding was like a father to me,” said Lopez. “He taught me how to defend against bigger and heavier players. I visited him in the hospital three weeks ago to cheer him up. He was frail and I even had to help him go to the bathroom. Ding used to own a restaurant in Makati and took in students for OJT, gave them free meals and P100 a day when other employers charged students to work with them. He had to close his restaurant because he was giving away too many free meals to friends. That was Ding’s way. He was generous and caring. Up to six years ago, Ding could still hit 20 free throws in a row. Everyone who knew Ding will surely miss him.”