SEOUL Olympic Games bronze medalist and retired Army 2nd Lt. Leopoldo Serantes passed away yesterday at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City. He was 59.
Association of Boxing Alliances in the Philippines secretary general Ed Picson said the daughter of Serantes, Leodelia, informed him that her father died due to complications of chronic pulmonary disease.
Picson said the ailing boxer has been hospitalized since Aug. 21 and had been in out of the VMMC since January, being intubated 13 times, with the Philippine Sports Commission and Chooks to Go helping in his medical needs and expenses.
A product of Project: Gintong Alay, the forerunner of the Philippine Sports Commission, Serantes also won back-to-back gold medals in the light flyweight division of the 1985 Bangkok and 1987 Jakarta Southeast Asian Games.
He was inducted in the latest batch of honorees to the Philippine Sports Hall of Fame last July 18.
ABAP president Ricky Vargas expressed his condolences to the Serantes family, saying:
“The country will always remember Serantes for the honor and joy he brought to the country as an Olympic medalist. We are saddened by his passing.”
The former Olympian is survived by his six children. His wife died in 2019.
