Beauty queens, pageant organizers, showbiz stars and the who’s who in Manila’s nightlife scene certainly know Leandro “Biboy” Enriquez, tagged as the “King of the Night Life” in the seventies and eighties.

Biboy started Stargazer with Louis Ysmael at Silahis Hotel, where the world-renowned Playboy Club, the only one in the Philippines, was located.

In late 1990’s, Biboy planned to open a satellite bar for Playboy Club in Makati, Cebu and Davao, but that didn’t happen anymore.

There came a time when Biboy was even introduced as the “Clint Eastwood ng Pilipinas.” When he eventually went into cockfighting, Biboy was called “Derek Ramsay ng Sabong.”

Born in Quezon City, Biboy is the younger of two siblings. He has an older sister, Linda, now 85. His mother, Doña Trinidad Diaz-Enriquez, hailed from Gandara, Samar.

“I’ve never met a person more hardworking than my mom,” Biboy told Philippine Star. “She was super masipag. She was a principal and school teacher in Tacloban.

“When she married my father (Modesto), she encouraged him to move to Manila and start a business here. They put up a small restaurant in Echague, before it became Tomas Pinpin.

“There was a theater there called Bataan Theater that was later converted into Clover Theater. My mom put up D&E (Diaz and Enriquez) Coffeeshop there.”

Business people going there for coffee got impressed with the place. However, when the place burned down, a president of a bank offered to grant a loan to Biboy’s mom to open in Escolta, then the Makati of Manila.

“My mother grabbed the opportunity and opened in T. Pinpin and that was in the ‘50s and ‘60s,” informed Biboy. “She opened canteens in Escolta and where railway roads were. She offered dining to railway passengers in dining cars all the way to Legazpi. She was very aggressive.”

The first Asian Games in 1954, Biboy’s mom secured thedining even without knowing how to feed the Japanese or Indianathletes.

The money she earned from the Asian Games, she put up D&E Restaurant in Quezon City at the corner of Alejandro Roces and Quezon Avenue. That was where Biboy met action king Fernando Poe, Jr., comedy king Dolphy and actor Jess Lapid. They played poker before Biboy went to the US for his education.

His mom also catered for successive presidents in Malacañang – (Carlos P.) Garcia, (Diosdado) Macapagal and (Ferdinand) Marcos.

When former first lady Imelda Marcos, his mom’s fellow Waray, opened Nayong Pilipino in 1972, the Enriquez matriarch also opened Philippine Village Hotel, with 550 rooms.

When the country, hosted the World Bank, President Marcos wanted to see a five-star hotel in Manila and offered an incentive.

“So my mom grabbed it and opened Silahis Hotel with more than 600 rooms,” Biboy inevitably got involved in managing Silahis. The college undergrad previously took charge of Sulo Hotel.

“I was naughty,” admitted Biboy. “From Ateneo grade school, I got a gold medal in conduct when I graduated Grade 7.” When he was in third year high school, however, he was expelled because he failed in conduct.

He was sent to Cagayan de Oro at the Ateneo’s Xavier University. After one year, he attended Baguio’s Military Institute, an expensive private school where he finished high school. That was where discipline was instilled in Biboy.

For college, Biboy went to University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, Quezon City, where Boots Anson-Roa was his classmate.

“I got bored, so my father decided to send me to Cornell University in New York,” Biboy said. “I stayed with my uncle, the brother of my mom, who was residing in Pottstown, Pennsylvania and married to an American.

“But when I got there, I wanted a car. So my dad said, ‘You have to prove to us that you deserve a car.’ I worked on that. But still not enough to convince my father, so I felt bad and fooled around again.”

After a year of taking Hotel and Restaurant Management at Cornell, Biboy returned to the Philippines without finishing his degree. His sister, Linda, graduated at Cornell.

​For his part, Biboy trained for three months at Empress Hotel in Hong Kong then he returned to Manila to start working.

His constant exposure to pretty and sexy ladies because of the pageants that he mounted, prevented Biboy from tying the knot making him as the eternal bachelor. 

​“Why will I get married?,” smilingly asked Biboy. “There was no need. Twice a year, I was pre-occupied with pageants – Miss Asia Pacific Quest and its international counterpart. Where the ladies were housed, that was where the pageant was also held.”

He also got the franchise for Miss World and secured it for 15 years. Subsequently, he got the franchises for Mutya ng Pilipinas and another contest in Malaysia (Miss Tourism) and Miss InterContinental in Germany.

While at Silahis International Hotel, Biboy got to meet international celebrities like Hollywood actor Lee Majors (“Six Million Dollar” man), who frequented the Playboy Club whenever he visited the Philippines.

Yet, he eventually relinquished those franchises. “MagigingDOM (dirty old man) na ako if I will not give up those pageants,” he said. “So I stepped down.”

He also retired from being the vice president of Hotel Operations of Sulo Management Company, owner of Philippine Village Hotel, Silahis International Hotel and Puerto Azul Beach Hotel.

“It was in 1988 when my sister bought out my shares,” offered Biboy. “Her son, Jocel Panlilio, took over management of those companies.”

Biboy also gave up being president of Miss Asia Pacific and Mutya ng Pilipinas in 2002. I sold Sulo Hotel in 2009, followed by Mutya and Asia Pacific to Joseph Tan in 2010.”

“I work out regularly now, exercise lang,” said Biboy, who turned 83 last February 28. “Mahilig akong magtanim.” Then in the morning, he walks on his farm in Tanay. “Ang target ko to live up to 105 years.”

Biboy was only eight years old then when he got curiousabout cockfighting. So, he started taking care of chickens. One day, their driver secretly brought him along to a tupada nearby. That was a small-time sabong at that time.

“He made me promise not to tell my mom,” Biboy recalled. “Our driver raised me on his shoulder to watch the game. I was excited. I saw the knife or the blade (tari). Then the cock won. Sigawan. I got hooked for life.”

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Today, Biboy loves spending his time on his 26.5-hectare farm in Tanay and tends to his fighting cocks. He is a two-time world champion cockfighter.

When the pandemic happened, he decided to relocate in Tanay from his Quezon City home. He never returned to Manilaeven when the coast became clear after the dreaded virus.

“Right now, bragging aside, I may be the number one cock breeder in the country and one of the top cockers,” said Enriquez, who remains proud about his shift to cockfighting from managing hotels and pageants. 

“Cockfighting is very challenging because each particular bloodline has its own appearance in color of feathers and fighting style,” Biboy maintained. “So a breeder like me decides the fighting style I prefer and propagate them to be able to maintain through inbreeding and cross breeding to create our own fighting machines of our choice.

“Then, to raise them healthy and strong by ranging them with proper feeding, health supplements and medication. We, as breeders clone and create our own fighting machines.”