HERE’S so much to be critical about in the world of sports at home. From the leeches that surround our national treasure Manny Pacquiao and those who advised him to affix his signature on one contract after another, showing no respect for the sanctity of his commitments; the incompetents appointed to positions in agencies such as the Games and Amusements Board at the behest of politicians and who waste their time praising their bosses rather than doing their job; the long discredited individuals, who have surfaced in the Basketball Association of the Philippines only to try and try and prevent the unity our people have yearned for in the quest to redeem our reputation in international basketball. The list goes on and on.
But reflecting on the Social Weather Stations survey, which mirrored an incredibly high level of hope among our people that 2007 would be a better year despite the troubles of the past, we figured we couldn’t do any less but point out the disappointments and reflect on our fervent hopes. The paramount hope is that indeed change will take place in the hearts and minds of those in positions of leadership and that their actions will set the tone for a resurgence that is devoutly to be wished not just in sports but in the various aspects of national life.
We believe that we have the capacity to do well if only we begin to trust our leaders and our leaders live up to the trust placed in them.
Whatever happens in the legal battle between Golden Boy Promotions and Top Rank, it’s obvious that the fight boxing fans want to see is a re-match between Pacquiao and Marco Antonio Barrera. Arum contends that Pacquiao would earn more even if he fights somebody else, because he is certain to lock into the Wynn Hotel & Casino in the gambling enclave of Macau, where the money keeps rolling in. But what will that do to Manny’s reputation? It certainly won’t make him a bigger star. Barrera may even claim that Pacquiao caught him in November 2003, when he was bothered by so many distractions which, quite honestly, was true and that Pacquiao is scared to fight him again. The only way to settle the score is to fight Barrera and give the fans what they want.
Let’s face it. If there is a way to get both Oscar de la Hoya and Bob Arum to agree to a co-promotion deal with the legal lawsuits continuing, why not? Our hope is that soon enough, there will be some agreement and the re-match will happen.
At the Games and Amusements Board, we trust that rather than waste his time praising his chairman, Eric Buhain, and President, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and thinking up unrealistic schemes to waste the people’s money by hosting international conventions, including one in Boracay, commissioner Alex Paglumotan would engage in something constructive. Our hope that Paglumotan will check on how many Filipino fighters get mauled in overmatched battles against superior Thai fighters and stop his ridiculous effort to get a former self-confessed drug user and hold-upper fight an undefeated American after a 10-year absence from the ring at the age of 36. He has the opportunity and we know if he wants, he can do it.
In Philippine basketball, we hope the discredited past officials of the BAP stop their disruptive efforts to prevent the sport moving forward under a new, unified organization Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas under the dependable leadership of the eminent businessman-sportsman Manny Pangilinan as president and Senator Jinggoy Estrada as chairman. Pangilinan’s passion for the sport and his support for basketball and even other sports are legendary while Estrada showed rare qualities of statesmanship in respecting the Tokyo agreements signed by his predecessor, former Senator Joey Lina. Men like Lito Puyat, whose stewardship of the BAP longer than Ferdinand Marcos was President of the Philippines, was riddled with failure and outright cheating when several Philippine youth teams had 50 percent of their players well over the age limit and controversial secretary-general Graham Lim, have absolutely no right to wreck what good and decent men are striving to achieve for the sport so the country can return to its rightful place in the international arena. They can show they really care and support the efforts.We hope they do.
