By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Photo © Chris Cozzone/Fightwireimages.com
WHEN Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao strode into the Cebu City Sports Complex for the “Moment of Truth” fight card on Feb. 25, the fans who jammed the grandstand booed him. In many ways, that was Pacquiao’s personal moment of truth.
Pacquiao was confronted with the stark reality that the booing represented a public expression of fight fans’ disappointment over his decision to ignore their sentiments and enter politics, which they all agree is a dirty game. A poll conducted on the popular Philboxing.com Web site, which has been a faithful supporter of the Pacman in recent years and helped enhance his stature as a true international ring warrior, clearly mirrored public sentiment when over 90 percent of those who voted said they didn’t want Pacquiao to enter politics.
For the past months, Pacquiao’s decision to run for office in the May elections had been mistakenly blamed on Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, a longtime supporter of the ring idol and all the other fighters, who have emerged since the General Santos native opened the doors to the established promotional outfits in the United States.
It all started when Pacquiao went to the Commission on Elections last July and requested transfer of residency from his hometown of General Santos City to Manila. The move sparked rumors that Pacquiao was being groomed as the running mate of Atienza’s sportsman-son and former Asian taekwondo champion Ali Atienza, who was aiming to succeed his father as mayor of Manila.
However, Pacquiao soon helped dispel the rumor when he said he planned to run for mayor of General Santos City against his friend and incumbent Mayor Pedro Acharon, who was qualified to run for one more term. But after going back and forth, Pacquiao then decided he would rather contest the congressional seat in South Cotabato, which is currently held by the youthful and intelligent Darlene Antonino Custodio, who is also seeking a third and final term.
It immediately raised the question as to whether Pacquiao, who transferred as a voter to Manila, could run for office in South Cotabato.
Comelec Chairman Ben Abalos, one of the first supporters of Pacquiao when he was a 16-year-old seeing action on the weekly boxing show “Blow by Blow” staged mostly at the Mandaluyong Gym, when Abalos was mayor, said a candidate for public office was required to have a one-year residency.
But well-known election lawyer Romulo Macalintal disagreed. He claimed that Pacquiao’s residency in GenSan “has never been abandoned. That was his original residence and even if he transferred his registration records, that does not mean he has already abandoned his domicile of origin.”
Custodio reacted calmly to the question of Pacquiao’s residency, merely stating that she had a legal team do some research on the issue. The charming congresswoman had always been a supporter of Pacquiao and we recall that at his birthday bash in 2004, she praised Pacquiao for “accomplishing big things not only nationally but internationally” and admitted that he had helped a lot of people in General Santos.
But politics has a distressing way of changing people and their attitude toward one another, although Custodio, when we spoke to her, conceded that Pacquiao was a very popular individual and didn’t say anything derogatory about him which is to her credit.
Atienza, who shared the overwhelming sentiment of Pacquiao supporters that he should concentrate on his boxing career for the next couple of years and then, if he so desires, enter politics in 2010, actually flew to Cebu on the day of the Moment of Truth along with Macalintal to try and convince the Pacman to abandon his plans to run for office.
Atienza and Macalintal watched Pacquiao train at the Cebu City Sports Complex Gym that afternoon and told us they were there to hopefully make him appreciate the reality that it was almost impossible to be involved in a debilitating political campaign in the midst of training for a fight. What was worse is that with a myriad distractions and the lack of enough time to train, Pacquiao was risking his reputation against undefeated Mexican Jorge Solis, who has a record of 32-0-2 with 23 knockouts.
After their conversations with Pacquiao, Atienza and Macalintal returned to Manila confident in the thought that their advice had been heeded. In a telephone conversation with Viva Sports/Standard Today, Macalintal said he was authorized by Pacquiao to announce his decision not to run and to explain his change of heart especially to the people who were upset by his planned entry into politics.
Macalintal quoted Pacquiao as saying: “I promise I will concentrate now on my training because I know I am carrying the name of our country and the hopes and prayers of our people. I have to respect their wishes and their dreams that I should not risk my career because of politics.”
He went on to state that Pacquiao was “hoping that the same prayers, the same wishes will be with him when he leaves for Los Angeles to continue his training and on to the fight in Texas.”
Pacquiao indicated then, it was not the time to discuss politics saying that there was “a proper time to think about politics. Now is the time to discuss boxing.”
However, he made it clear he would support some candidates he feels should be supported. Pacquiao, according to Macalintal, said he was saddened by the fact that there were supporters, who were hurt by his plans to enter politics and apologized to them.
Close friend and confidant Rex “Wakee” Salud said he was very happy over the announced decision of Pacquiao. Salud himself had accompanied Pacquiao to Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña who, when asked for his advice told Pacquiao, “you can run in the next elections. Not now.”
It was generally believed that the boos that greeted Pacquiao during the Moment of Truth was the clincher in his announced decision not to run for public office this May.
Twenty-four hours after, fight fans expressed their relief if not jubilation over the announcement that Pacquiao would not run and his mother Dionisia told media how happy she was, there was another turnaround.
Pacquiao’s lawyer Franklin “Jing” Gacal claimed Atienza and Macalintal had misunderstood Pacquiao’s statements. We were back to square one.
“Manny is running and there was a misunderstanding.” Gacal flatly told this writer.
Gacal said he sought clarification from Pacquiao after the story broke because his political leaders were apparently confused and the ring gladiator said he will run. The lawyer even claimed that the political machinery of Pacquiao was “established and intact.”
Celebrated trainer Freddie Roach, who had honed the raw skills of Pacquiao into a devastating fighting machine, was concerned about the many distractions in the fighter’s day-to-day routine and suggested that since time is short and Pacquiao hadn’t trained like he normally does for the April 14 fight, he should call it off.
After watching a tape of Solis, Roach said it was a dangerous fight for Pacquiao because of his lack of training and the many distractions.
In an overseas telephone conversation from his Wild Card Gym, Roach noted that Solis “fights like Erik Morales a little bit. He is tall, 5’10” and doesn’t run that much. He will trade with you.”
However, Roach pointed out that Solis hadn’t fought such quality opponents but added that he was still undefeated with a lot of knockouts.
Roach ended by reminding Pacquiao: “There is no such thing as an easy fight.”
Even as Roach was speaking, Pacquiao was spending time with Ilocos Sur governor and administration senatorial candidate Chavit Singson. He visited the Iglesia Ni Cristo headquarters on March 1, where he was mobbed by fans and then was at the residence of the governor in Corinthian Gardens, in the process skipping training that day. Pacquiao flew to General Santos the following morning and worked out in the afternoon at the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines Gym. He was supposed to return to Manila on Saturday to attend a press conference of the Pwersa ng Bayaning Atleta party-list group, headed by former Philippine Basketball Association superstar Jerry Codiñera, and which Pacquiao has strongly endorsed being an athlete himself. He was also expected at the boxing card at the Rajah Sulaiman Park along Roxas Boulevard, staged by his own MP Promotions. But he failed to show up at both events and instead decided to work out in GenSan since he was behind in his training schedule.
On Feb. 14, Pacquiao, in a conversation with us, hinted that he may decide to forego the April 14 fight against Solis and wait for a megabuck re-match with either Marco Antonio Barrera or Juan Manuel Marquez, two legendary Mexicans, who were clashing on March 18 in a title fight aptly bannered “Fearless.”
It was possible that Pacquiao could fight them both within the foreseeable future since Barrera and Marquez had often stated they wanted him one more time. The key to this scenario was the great Oscar de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions with whom Pacquiao had signed a seven-fight contract in mid-September, but complicated the situation by also signing a four-year deal with Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions some two months later.
Golden Boy had the biggest names and the most exciting and logical opponents for Pacquiao, who was chosen by the prestigious Ring Magazine as its Fighter of the Year for his demolition of Morales in the last two fights of a spectacular trilogy. Aside from Barrera and Marquez, Golden Boy has Joan Guzman, Rocky Juarez and even holds the promotional rights for flamboyant, undefeated knockout artist Edwin Valero in the US. Fights for Pacquiao against any of these opponents would mean a minimum of around $5 million, which Arum promised Pacquiao, but obviously cannot deliver.
