I HAVE a friend who's a big fan of boxer-senator Manny Pacquiao. He is rooting for him to run for president in the 2022 elections. He said: “Kung naging madali lang sa kanya na patumbahin ang kanyang mga naging katunggali sa ruweda baka ganun din ang gawin niya, lapatan ng lunas ang mga problema ng bayan.”
We have sporadic exchange about Pacquiao with me arguing that he is great in boxing but outside the ring, forget it, while he countered that the Pinoy masa always love the underdog and it is what will surely bring the boxer politician to the presidency next year.
Well, now about our boxing champ. Sen. Manny Pacquiao is one of a kind in our neck of the woods and anywhere else. He is a dirt-poor boy from GenSan who used his boxing prowess to rise up in life. Who would have thought that despite his personal deficiencies, his lack of education immediately comes to mind, he being so poor it was told that he was only able to reach elementary grades. I don’t know if he has even graduated elementary but now, owing to his millions, nay even billions, of cold cash he generated for himself from the sweet science of boxing, he can now afford the best tutor any money can buy for his education. It has even been reported that he has graduated and earned a degree in political science.
Indeed, someone like Manny Pacquiao, with sheer grit, determination, stamina and chutzpah, has arrived. He is the perfect example of a man who seems to have been favored by the gods, yes, until his confrontation with the top dog himself that has now put him in the greatest fight of his life outside the ring.
Now, this boy from GenSan is seemingly gearing up for the highest post of the land in Pinoylandia. He is presently the president of PDP-Laban, the ruling party of which the chairman is no less than the top dog himself, Pres. Rodrigo Duterte. How Sen. Manny became the president of PDP-Laban escapes me now as he might have executed a political feat somewhere when I was not looking to have maneuvered himself to emerge at the top heap along with the top dog himself whom he is at present brawling with.
Sen. Manny Paccquiao photo from BBC
He has recently made a live online press conference exposing alleged massive corruptions in the DOH and DSWD in connection with the implementation of the anti-Covid-19 measures. He said he will be bringing his case to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee for investigation. Malacañang has responded by dismissing outright Pacquiao’s allegations along with the heads of the various government agencies he has implicated in his rather late revelations of hanky-pankies of the Duterte administration he has been allied with since day one.
For it can be asked, why only now is he coming out with his supposed goods on the Duterte administration when it is already bowing out until next year? It is obvious that it is nothing but plain and simple politicking on his part for his supposed presidential ambition.
It has been bruited about for some time now that Sen. Manny is gearing up to fight in the presidential arena.