Twelve Rounds

Much has been said about the controversial Pacquiao-Bradley fight yesterday. It is written all over the blogs, news portals, tabloids, and broadsheets. It is the content of almost all the local news programs and I expect it to last for at least one week and another week after Manny Pacquiao’s homecoming.

I am writing this not to sound as an aspiring sports columnist. Or as a sports writer/blogger. Or some expressive bandwagon rider who writes his opinion on almost every issue.

I am writing this as an ordinary viewer who tried to keep focused on watching the fight despite a nasty hangover brought by an inuman session with his friends the night before the match. And as an ordinary Filipino boxing fan who, together with his fellow countrymen, felt robbed of a good and clean entertainment.

Please take note that these should be taken with a grain of iodized salt.

1. Pacquiao was undefeated for the last seven years (fifteen fights) of his boxing career - until the tragedy came yesterday. Perhaps we are just always accustomed to his victory that’s why we were all shocked by the tragedy. How about that?
2. Karl Marx once said that ‘Religion is the opium of the people’. Well here in the Philippines, it’s showbiz, television, social media, and the fights of Manny Pacquiao. In a country plagued by tragedy, corruption, impunity, and crime, there must always be something to uplift our spirit and temporarily escape these tragedies and Pacquiao’s fights are one of them. So I understood our grief. It is like taking away from us our painkiller. 
3. But of course, you will argue that yesterday’s fight was a clear victory for Manny Pacquiao. First, you are not the judges (who happen to have the final say on that match). Second, some boxing analysts saw a ‘relaxed’ Manny Pacquiao during the last, crucial rounds of the fight and they would have called it a draw. And third, as what Pontius Pilate said, “What I have written, I have written”.
4. The  tragedy of Manny Pacquiao yesterday reminds me of the same boxing tragedy of Mansueto ‘Onyok’ Velasco during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. He was also robbed of what would have been the country’s first Olympic gold medal. What happened? Did we create the same noise? Did we support Onyok’s protest? Maybe I was just too young then to know these things. And times are different now with the age of social media. (The last time I saw, Onyok plays as a co-host and one of Pacquiao’s sidekicks on his shows. But that’s another story.)
5. Some (including my Erpats) said that Manny’s loss was a justice for the supposed victory of Juan Manuel Marquez during his third fight with the former. Plausible? (Maybe we should call the Mythbusters to test this.)
6. Another conspiracy that came out yesterday was Bob Arum was behind all of these. He wants a more hyped rematch for Pacquiao and Bradley which will only mean two words for the boxing promoter - Kaching! Kaching! (With these, I suggest that Manny Pacquiao’s entrance song on his next fight would be ‘Price Tag’ by Jessie J and not the overused and Rocky-ish ‘Eye of the Tiger’.)
7. With yesterday’s aftermath of the match and most of the people’s reactions, I have once again proven that the word ‘loser’ (or ‘talunan’) is not in our dictionary. We use the equally synonymous terms dinaya,niluto, and  pinagkaisahan. They are commonly used during the election period.
8. One of the most retweeted tweet/joke yesterday was ‘Niluto ang labang Pacquiao-Bradley. Sa sobrang luto, nasunog si Bradley!’. Wow! Just a few days ago, most of us went berserk on the alleged racism of the Bayo advertisement. I admire our inconsistency. Mabuhay!
9. I felt bad for Manny Pacquiao’s sons. It was their first time to watch their father’s fight on ringside. Some moron may look at this as a bad luck but hey, Daddy Manny would still go home with Money Many Prizes. Kaching! Kaching!
10. And yes, win or lose for Manny, Mommy Dionisia would still get her Hermes bag. So the ‘No Hermes’ trending topic yesterday is a blasphemy against Manny’s riches.  Kaching! Kaching! (After all, Manny has already bought Mommy D. a new van for her birthday last month).
11. As what Jessica Zafra said on her column today, it is natural for us Filipinos to look for someone or something to blame - his new-found love for God, Politics, show business, and the people around him. but let’s just leave it there. After all, Manny Pacquiao, despite his loss yesterday, will still (and always) be remembered as one of the greatest, if not the greatest boxer of all time.
12. Comic artist Gerry Alanguilan (Komikero) tweeted this yesterday: “I think we all need to lose once in a while. To keep us from being complacent. To keep us hungry. To have some humility.” Boxing is a game. There are winners and losers. Manny may have lost but this is not the end of him. And I think his new-found faith in God will help him deal with this loss. Or maybe this is the proper time for Manny to pass the torch to the next generation of great Filipino boxers.

Elsewhere:

• Was the Pacquiao-Bradley fight fixed? - Just hours before the big fight, lots of last-minute bets were placed on Bradley in Las Vegas, says one pro gambler
• A Filipino parent’s guide to dealing with Pacquiao loss - Blog entry of Benjamin Pimentel for Inquirer Global Nation about teaching our children the value and lessons from losing a fight.
• So Manny Pacquiao Lost - Jessica Zafra and her two cents, and four points, on this issue.

Butterfly Carnival

The signs are clear. Politicians are switching from one political party to another, forming new alliances. Others would merge their parties to form a powerhouse coalition. Losers from the previous elections are starting to resurface, flaunting their faces to the public on tarpaulins with their ‘seasonal greetings’. And reelectionists are starting to make noise, vying a media exposure and ‘presence’ to the memories of the voting public.

To put it in a Ned Stark way: “Brace yourselves. Elections are coming.”

Strictly speaking, there is no definite ‘election period’ here in in the Philippines. Though the Commission on Elections, by law, provide a particular period for the filing of certificate of candidacy and the campaign period, there are (aspiring) politicians who manage to apprise the people of their intention to run for public office (eg. subliminal greetings on tarpaulins, increased visibility to the public, and a sudden wave of medical missions and other forms of service) even before the alloted election period.

But ‘presence’ on the public’s eyes is not enough. In order to secure one’s victory, strong alliances and coalitions must be formed. If you have to turn down your allies and seek for a more potentially strong, winning group, then so be it. In the political parlance, this is called ‘butterfly politics’, and the politicians who do it are called  ’political butterflies’.  The term came from the butterfly’s act of flying from flower to flower, sipping nectar from each flower. These kinds of politicians are compared to the butterfly, who sip nectar from one flower to another. If a butterfly has had enough of nectar - or if a politician has no more interest on a particular group - it will transfer to another flower with nectar - or to the party who will assure his victory and secure his interest.

Philippine election history has shown countless politicians who switched from one political party to another, months and even weeks before the elections. And we have heard some of their excuse, the most popular was their belief of the party’s principles and tenets. And no, they do not admit that that move was to secure their victory on the upcoming elections.

And the latest addition to the roster of these butterflies is no other than the Pambansong Kamao, world-class boxing champion-turned-Saranggani Congressman, Emmanuel ‘Manny’ Pacquiao. He formally joined Vice President Jejomar Binay’s Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) when he took an oath to Senator Koko Pimentel last night at the Makati Shangri-La. Although Manny was a member of the Nacionalista party with Sen. Manny Villar, he was an ally of President Aquino and the ruling Liberal Party.

But this was not the first time Manny transferred into another political party. When he first ran for the House of Representatives in 2007, he joined the Lito Atienza faction of the Liberal Party. In 2008, he joined the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) formed by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. A year later, he formed his own political party People’s Champ Movement after declaring he would run for the lone Congressional district of Saranggani. Shortly before the 2010 presidential elections, Senator Manny Villar tapped him to join the Nacionalista Party. Barely a week after the elections, he was seen ‘flirting’ with the new Liberal Party under President Aquino.

Manny Pacquiao is said to be the PDP-Laban’s Gubernatorial candidate for Saranggani in the May 2013 local elections. PDP-Laban’s President Senator Koko Pimentel said that they took Manny not because he will ensure the party’s victory but because the latter believes in the tenets of the party.

Unlike other countries, our country has a multi-party system. We elect politicians running independently or under a political party and 20% of the total seats at the Camara de Representantes are reserved for party-list (multi-sectoral) representation. But in our multi-party system, there is no clearly depicted difference of ideology to distinguish one party to another. It only just turns out that one party is pro-administration and the other one is the opposition. And as what we’ve seen and observed over the past years, one’s membership in a party is not based on ideologies but on political power considerations.

Political butterflies. Turncoats. You name it. These are the elements that continue to have fun on this carnival called Philippine politics.

What can we do to stop this political culture? Writer Edwin Espejo suggests that “no one should be allowed to switch parties immediately preceding an election. Those who switch political party should be prohibited from running for any post in a scheduled election immediately prior to switching parties. In short, anyone who switches party should take a ‘leave of absence’ from at least one election.”. He added that this would not only discourage political turncoats but this would also strengthen the country’s multi-party system.

But I doubt this would be put into legislation. How can you expect our Legislators to file this ruling that would greatly affect their political career? The future of this culture is still at the mercy of these butterflies -not unless the people clamor for it. I think there’s still hope and the power is with the voting public - choose our leaders wisely.

A few weeks ago, my Twitter timeline was plagued by the hashtag #PacquiaoPositive. At first, I thought it has something to do with a medical test and substance overuse. But it turned out to be a marketing gimmick to introduce his latest endorsement, Sting Energy Drink with Malunggay.

I didn’t know that there is one kind of butterfly who loves ‘malunggay’.

Note: I got the title ‘Butterfly Carnival’ from one of my favorite Sandwich song of the same title. Though the song’s meaning is different from the point of this article, I used it to describe two elements - political butterflies and the carnival-like circus that is Pinoy politics.

Read more here:

• Pacquiao floats like a butterfly, out of the ring (Inquirer.net)
• Pacquiao officially joins Binay camp (ABS-CBNnews.com)
• Loren Legarda - The Political Butterfly - A 2009 article about Loren Legarda and her road to the Vice Presidency
• Pacquiao Politics: Political Butterfly - A 2010 article by Edwin Espejo

Yellow Fever

Tomorrow, Filipino Pride and Pambansang Kamao Manny Pacquiao will once again step into the ring to show the whole world what an eight division world champion can do to defend his title. This time, against the American Sugar Shane Mosley. And earlier today, Philippine time, these two great fighters stepped into the scales for their weigh-in.

Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines and US Shane Mosley (R) attend the official weigh-in for their fight in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 6, 2011. The eight division world champion Pacquiao marks his return to Las Vegas for the first time since 2009 by fighting Mosley for the World Boxing Organization welterweight title at the Garden Arena in the MGM Grand on May 7

Most of us are excited for the fight that will once again, hopefully, bring honor, pride, and unity to our problem-filled and divided country.

While most of the viewers will be placing their bets and riches for Pacquiao (or on what round will he send Mosley sleeping on the ring), our fighter will be fighting another opponent - poverty.

And Manny Pacquiao will once again set history tomorrow. For the first time in boxing history, a yellow pair of boxing gloves will be used.

As most of us know, red, blue, and burgundy are the colors used by a boxer. Yellow as a symbol of his fight against poverty. Pacman is said to wear yellow to "signify the unity among the Filipino people across the globe". In an interview with sportscaster Chino Trinidad, Pacman said in context that "boxing is not the biggest fight in his life. Eradicating poverty is now the biggest fight of his life." He also encouraged suppoters and fans of Shane Mosley to wear yellow too as a sign of unity with the Filipinos in our fight against poverty.

This move and advocacy of Pacquiao was lauded by the foreign media and other non-Filipino boxing aficionados. He uses his influence as a famous boxer to do something good and for the betterment of other people.

As expected, this move by Pacman, especially the preferred color, was not spared from comments and allegations that this was in support for President Noynoy Aquino (who used the same color during his campaign and obviously, the color inherited from his mother Cory Aquino). Why choose the color yellow? Why not the other colors? In my humorous and sarcastic mind, I made these things up:

• Blue - The famous color of President Nonoy's running-mate during the 2010 elections. This may be a bad choice. That color didn't win.


• Green - The so-called "galing at talino" color. Again, bad choice. This has akiss of death back in 2010 (wink!)


• Pink - The color of a bayani. Why not this one? Masakit sa mata. And Pacman might be mistaken as a member of Sir Danton Remoto's group.


• Red - The color of the badtrip and flash great man from Subic. Why not this one? It's the usual.


• Orange - The color of the guy who swam in the sea of garbage. Why not this one? Pacman supported this guy back in 2010? The reason may be obvious.

For some, Manny's choice of color may be a big deal. Metaphysically speaking, color is just an accident. It may be present or not. What is essential is the essence, the substance. What is important is Manny Pacquiao's advocacy to giht poverty.

With that advocacy, he is already a champion. And no one can take that title away from him.

I hope to see a sea of yellow tomorrow in support for our Pambansang Kamao.

And Floyd Mayweather, I hope to see you soon on the ring with this man.

Good luck Manny and bring honor once again to this country. Padayon!

P.S. Can you spot the Pambansang Anino in the photo?