FRANCISCO "Django" BUSTAMANTE

'Kilabot' of the Billiard Hall

By Val G. Abelgas
Great billiard players have one thing in common. They played the game at a very early age and grew up in billiard halls. Jose “Amang” Parica, the first of the Filipino billiard greats, was only seven years old when he first played the sport, and he played every single day in the billiard halls his father owned in Sta. Cruz and Blumentritt in Manila.
Francisco “Django” Bustamante, Player of the Year and world’s No. 1 ranked player in 1998, is no exception. Bustamante first picked up the cue when he was 12 years old, and played every day in the billiard hall owned by his brother in Tarlac, Tarlac. Soon, he was playing so well he had to seek other billiard halls for tougher competition. In 1985, he went to Metro Manila and eventually found the plush billiard halls of the Puyat-owned Coronado Lanes at Rustan’s in Cubao, Quezon City. There, he matched skills with the likes of Parica, Efren “Bata” Reyes, Leonardo Andam, Rodolfo Luat, Ramil Gallegos, Antonio Lining and Santos Sambajon Jr., some of the finest Filipino players who have dominated the world billiard scene for years.
Bustamante, Parica and Reyes have figured in the finals of scores of billiard tournaments in the United States, Japan, the Philippines, and other parts of the world. In fact, in Bustamante’s very first major tournament, the San Miguel Beer World 9-Ball Open held in Manila in 1988, he engaged Parica in the finals. the tournament was participated in by players from Europe, Japan, and the United States. Bustamante lost to Parica in a closely-fought match, but surprised everybody with his very strong showing in his very first major tournament. Everybody in the hall knew then that he would become the heir to Parica and Reyes.

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