By Michael Marley of The Examiner, special to BoxingScene.com

MICHAEL MARLEY'S PHILIPPINE DIARY, PART 18:

GENERAL SANTOS CITY--Perhaps that Beyonce song got stuck in Manny Pacquiao's head.

Or maybe he was just struck by inspiration to make a boxing related promise to the pobrecitos who are among the 230,000 registered voters in neighboring Sarangani Province.

Or maybe, just maybe, it just hit him that Monday, which is Election Day here in my favorite archipelago, is also his 10th wedding anniversary as he and the lovely lady, Jinkee, were betrothed on May 10, 2000.

Whatever, the salient point is that Pacman, whose Congressional battle against Old Money Roy Chiongbian and his powerful clan goes to the ballot boxes Monday, has promised to construct boxing gymansiums in 16 barangays across the seaside, rural province which seems to be populated more by goats, chickens and cattle than by people.

Yes, if Pacquiao is elected, he's going to put a ring on it.

Actually, he will be putting 16 rings on it across the province.

In heated competition with the Chiongbians, Pacquiao has also been promising to built the first hospital in the province and to provide free and reduced price medicine to residents.

As I write this on an otherwise lazy Mother's Day Sunday afternoon (shout out to my Wild Irish Rose, Dorothy Marion Corbett in heaven above) at the Royale Hotel, we have just watched the successful ring return in Aguascaliente, Mexico, of Antonio Margarito on ABS-CBN lively commentary provided of the Manila studios by my pals Dyan Castillelejo and boxing maven Ronnie Nathanielsz.

Margarito, as you know, is a Plan B opponent for Pacquiao should the Floyd Mayweather Jr. super bout negotiations come a cropper again for promoter Bob Arum.

 "He did not go in there with a pushover this time and he won. I would give him another fight, a tune up fight and then he can fight Manny if that's the way we have to go. I think he needs one more bout to shake off the ring rust. We had 22,000 people in there so it was great," Arum said.

Truth be told, that would be serving up hamburger helper rather than the steak and lobster feast of Pacman-Money May in all respects.

In what I would call more distressing information, the gentleman who heads up Time magazine's Asian bureau just informed me that a journalist was shot and killed a block from our location a few years ago.

I don't mind editorial oversight or criticism but that is ridiculous.

Nathanielsz, by the bye, has raised the ire of Ring magazine editor Nigel Collins after lambasting the Oscar de la Hoya owned publication for proclaiming Mayweather the world's top welterweight after he decisioned nearly age 40 Sugar Shane Mosley.

Collins is upset that the Manila based writer-broadcaster questioned the editorial integrity of the so called "Bible of boxing" for shoving Pacman out of the top spot and down to second place behind the undefeated American.

Collins told a mutual friend that Nathanielsz is trying to suck up to Pacman.

Nathanielsz asserts Collins is trying to suck up to paymaster Oscar and his Golden Boy cohorts.

Personally, I am irritated that anyone would even try to compete with me when it comes to sucking up to Pacquiao.

Who can really compete with me when it comes to taking to the Pacman kneepads?

I hate it when jealous people try to steal my job description.

Naturally, Arum put the blast on The Ring.

"Who signs Nigel's paychecks, all their paychecks? The Oscar blog, the whole thing has about as much editorial integrity as my Top Rank website does," Arum said. "The whole thing is a joke. Don't tell me about editorial integrity and The Ring."

What a hornet's nest this topic is becoming.

Maybe we can all compromise, maybe we list Pacquiao as Number One and Mayweather as Number One A.

We're just lucky that Bobinator did not revive the old Teddy Brenner line, back in 1977 when it came out that The Ring's ratings and records had been fized in favor of Don King and his soon aborted US Boxing Championship Tournament on the ABC network.

"If Ring is the Bible of boxing," Madison Square Garden chief Brenner cracked, "then we need a New Testament."