My famous last words, hopefully, on the Pacman: The need for the final bell
Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao settled for a majority draw with Mexican American Mario Barrios in their welterweight title fight in Las Vegas a few days ago. Don’t be so sad. Remember this, your sadness would be even worse if he had won. The Pacman returned to boxing at 46, which is long past retirement age in the sport and after four years of inactivity. Once again, he pushed his luck too far and tried to defy time to extend an already historic career that saw him rise to global stardom, amass wealth of millions of dollars, and parlay his success in the ring into various ventures including those he had no business doing— like becoming an actor, a singer, a religious evangelist, a professional basketball player, and a senator—and he isn’t closing his doors to another run for president, where he once tried and failed.
He’s had his time in the limelight, to put it mildly, and it seems he had too much of it to the point of addiction that now he refuses to let go. For this, we are partly to blame, a nation willing to cater to his whims, especially at the height of Manny’s popularity, when all that Manny had to do was ask and people would listen and give in to whatever he wanted. After all, what’s one movie, one concert, or one vote for senator, for that matter, if the guy had been reaping honors for his country and stopping communist rebel insurgency every time he fights. For a time, he seemed to be our nation’s biggest source of hope. So blame it on the Pinoy’s warped sense of gratitude, that out of utang na loob, we gladly turned a blind eye to his hopeless incompetence and the disastrous consequences of his political alliances and decisions.
Manny is part of the reason that former presidents Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Rodrigo Duterte were able to build a strong political mass base among the poor and stay in power, while wreaking havoc on the economy, and in Duterte’s case, thousands of disappearances and summary executions. He used to be on good terms with the likes of Atong Ang and still is with Chavit Singson.
At the height of his popularity, all that Manny had to say to make his wish come true, no matter how reckless and ill-advised a spoiled brat he was most of the time, was that “It is my passion, and I would like to serve my countrymen,” and just like that. As if caught under the spell of the pied piper’s call, people would believe and follow him to the ends of the earth without hesitation. Don’t be surprised that Manny is saying the same things now—about passion and the will to serve, which we must have heard, maybe a million times. Once again, he speaks the same rallying cry in a typical emotive style, asking for people’s support as he battled Barrios, while dropping hints of future presidential plans.
No one can deny or take for granted what Manny has done for this country. But to be fair, this country had also given him back more than he could reasonably ask for. With too many hangers-on feeding on his success, his false hopes, his ego and excesses, his sense of entitlement that has grown to borderline delusional, Manny needs a wake-up call, the intense dose of reality that he deserves, the lesson that is long overdue—the cold hard facts and finality of our collective unconditional rejection. All of us telling him to his face that enough is enough. That’s why Barrios retaining his WBC welterweight championship may be a blessing in disguise.
Adel B. Abillar,
atty.adel@gmail.com
