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Philippine Dub Veteran Jefferson Utanes Dies

Utanes' family is currently holding a public wake at St. Peter Chapels, Martinez Street, Antipolo City until Saturday, with the burial planned at Providence Memorial Park.

Utanes' family is asking for donations to cover Utanes' high medical procedure costs.

Jefferson Utanes' sister-in-law Elizabeth Feliciano-Teodoro launched a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign on July 12 earlier this year to help pay for a coronary artery bypass surgery that Utanes requires to combat heart blockage. The campaign sought to raise CA$15,000 to cover the cost for the surgery, but ended up raising only CA$1,706.

Utanes explained in his original July 12 post on Facebook that he has been suffering from stage 5 chronic kidney disease, and has been undergoing dialysis for the disease for more than a year, but a doctor only noticed the heart blockage recently. A second opinion confirmed the need for a bypass surgery.

Utanes worked as a Tagalog dubbing director for ABS-CBN, formerly the largest free terrestrial television network in the Philippines. There, he directed and voiced a number of dubs for the channel's foreign content, including anime. Within Tagalog anime dubs, he is best known as the voice of Dragon Ball Z's Goku, Doraemon's titular character, Kogoro Mori in Detective Conan, Hisoka in Hunter × Hunter, Sukuna in Jujutsu Kaisen, Kyon in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Usopp in One Piece, Professor Oak in Pokémon, Artemis in Sailor Moon, and Kōsei Arima in Your Lie in April, among many other roles.

Source: Jefferson Utanes' Facebook page (link 2) via Anime Pilipinas