Go Teng Kok, the amiable yet controversial former president of the Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association (Patafa), has passed away on December 18, 2024 at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute. He was 79.
Go’s family kept his death private. A simple burial ceremony was attended only by his closest relatives. His ashes are placed in a tomb at the Thousand Buddha Temple in Quezon City.
He was survived by wife, Betty, and his three children.
The news was belatedly relayed by Lucy Artiaga to former Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) Chairman Philip Ella Juico. Artiaga was GTK’s long-time assistant at the Patafa.
Artiaga told Juico that GTK’s death was confirmed by Go’s sister, Dorothy Go-Evangelista. It was Juico who succeeded GTK as Patafa president after Go’s resignation in 2014. Go served the Patafa from 1990 to 2014 as successor to Jose Sering who was the Patafa president from 1969 to 1981, and then again from 1984 to 1990.
The Patafa has since been renamed Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association. Under GTK, one of the Patafa athletes’ best performance in an international competition was when they won won six gold medals in the 2013 Indonesia Southeast Asian Games, the most by any team in the quadrennial event. Not a few view GTK’s reign at the Patafa as “colorful” and some considered him a controversial sports figure who did not back down from challenging even more powerful personalities.
Go survived an assassination attempt in 2003.
Juico said of Go: “You can say what you want about GTK but one this is for sure, he did not touch any money given by the government to the sport of athletics.”
“He used his own personal funds for his athletes. He went to the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex very early to monitor their training. He was a hardworking sports official, very dedicated and hands on. He was very approachable, even funny and a comic sometimes to make those around him at ease.”
