Reporting note: this article draws on philstar.com; LodiScore provides the summary and editorial framing.
Raul Daza death at 91
Raul Daza death at 91: the former three-term governor of Northern Samar and 20-year member of the House of Representatives died on Oct. 12, philstar.com reported. No cause of death was given.
He was described in the report as a lawyer, a nationalist, a campaigner against corruption in government and a street parliamentarian who, in the account given, did not compromise his principles. Those descriptions cover the political track. A second track runs through boxing, where he held office for most of five decades.
In February he was elected ABAP vice-chairman, returning to the federation's leadership after a 16-year chairmanship that began in 1992.
D'Diamonds stable and the 1967 exit
Before ABAP, Daza owned a professional stable called D'Diamonds, which carried about 12 fighters. The roster included junior welterweight Rocky Alarde, a cousin of Flash Elorde, middleweight Terry Flores and bantamweight Bonnie Borromeo. The stable operated during the term of Games and Amusements Board chairman Jun Montano.
Daza managed D'Diamonds for seven years. He gave it up in 1967 to run in a special election for the congressional seat left vacant by a deceased incumbent, handing his boxers to friends active in the sport.
He lost that first bid. In 1969 he unseated Eusebio Moore, the same man who had beaten him two years earlier.
ABAP tenure and the Olympic argument
Daza's chairmanship of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines ran 16 years from 1992. He was at the 2012 London Olympics to support light flyweight Mark Anthony Barriga. During those Games he called the rules of exclusion primitive and obsolete and argued for professional boxers to be allowed into the Olympic tournament, a change that later took effect.
His boxing memory reached further back. He recalled visiting Bangkok with Borromeo while his UP high school classmate Gen. Ramon Farolan was assigned to the Thai capital with SEATO, and was at ringside when Borromeo was knocked out cold by a Thai fighter. He credited Japanese promoter Takafusa Kawarai, married to a Filipina, with opening doors for Filipino fighters to earn paychecks in Japan.
Ceferino Garcia and the Donaire resolution
Daza met former world middleweight champion Ceferino Garcia at the Besa Boxing Arena in 1964 and discussed Garcia's bouts against Hall of Famers Barney Ross and Henry Armstrong. "For what he's done for boxing, as a former world champion, as the inventor of the bolo punch, as the first man to floor Ross and who once drew with Armstrong, he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame," Daza said.
He was also a Nonito Donaire fan. He asked his son Paul, then a congressman, to author a resolution citing Donaire for his win over Nordine Oubaali that took the WBC bantamweight title in 2021.
What remains in Northern Samar and ABAP
The political line continues inside the family: his grandson Niko is Representative of the First District of Northern Samar. The boxing line sits with ABAP, where Daza was vice-chairman at the time of his death.
The original report on his life and boxing record was published by philstar.com.