My Cousin (Bro) Vinny

By NIMROD NL QUIÑONES

It has been a week since I received the very sad news while I was driving to work, my dear cousin Vincent Theodore Q. Cruz, who we consider as our sibling, has passed.

Vinny was only 44 years old and we considered him our baby brother even if he is not the youngest of our generation, my siblings – Nereus, Nino and Naika, our cousins Carlo and Harlie and Vinny grew up together in one home.

This was probably why Vinny would tell us that he never thought of us as cousins and he considered us his siblings. This is one reason why his passing hits us quite hard.

He died in his apartment in Brooklyn, New York.

While he almost always wore black clothes along with his cowboy hat and black boots, Vinny was not only a heavy metal band bassist, he was also a serious martial arts practitioner.

I introduced him to arnis during one of his visits to the Cebu and we even bought him gear to take back to New York so he could continue training.

He loved swords and was part of a group that enjoyed the same thing. But there was one group that he eventually stuck with and travelled to different places around the Philippines and the world with – his fellow practitioners of Pekiti Tirsia Kali (PTK).

This photo from Vinny’s Facebook page shows him in his cowboy hat with his fellow PTK practitioners in New York.

PTK is a martial art that originated in the Visayas region and is practiced by the members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Its practitioners use sticks, knives and swords among others. It is excellent for close contact fights.

This is another photo from his Facebook page where Vinny attended a seminar conducted by legendary martial artist Dan Inosanto, who I also personally met many times during the World Arnis Championships that I have attended.

Nine years ago, my aunt Ofelia, Vinny’s mom, told me that he wanted me to go to Bohol to meet his PTK group there.

It was a rare request that I could not say no to, so I went to Panglao where Vinny and his PTK group along with their Tuhon (master) had been training for two (or was it three) weeks. I met most of the group and they were about to wrap up their training and were heading to Cebu.

I am sure we had many other photos but I only found this one from that trip to Bohol in 2017.

I went back to Cebu a day ahead of them when I got a call from Vinny asking me, “Kuya can we have lechon?”

While this is a normal request when in Cebu, it was the Holy Week, but then I was able to organize a quick get-together with the PTK group at the poolside of our club on a Maundy Thursday and yes, I managed to produce a freshly-cooked whole lechon for them.

Vinny travelled to many other places with the group to hone his fighting skills like he needed them. He looked tough, but he was soft and was such a joker. He did not probably need martial arts skills to disarm you. He would just make you laugh.

The last time he was here was early 2025 and we were talking about his plans to buy a property near the sea somewhere in the southern part of the province or maybe up north in San Remigio where our grandmother’s family is from. He also wanted to buy a motorcycle but we were able to talk him out of it.