Miguel Molina has given way to Manny Pacquiao as flag-bearer of the Philippine delegation to the Beijing Olympics in August.
Molina, who won four gold medals and was named Best Male Athlete of the 2007 Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, was earlier given the coveted role of RP Team flag-bearer.
But President Arroyo the other day made a surprise decision naming Pacquiao, the new WBC lightweight champion, as the country?s special envoy to the coming Olympics.
The President tasked Pacquiao as the flag-bearer, leaving officials of the Philippine Olympic Committee scrambling for ways how the President?s wish could be granted.
The move is quite unprecedented that an athlete not competing in the Games would carry the flag for his or her country.
Monico Puentevella, chef-de-mission of the RP delegation, said yesterday half the problem is solved when Molina, based in the United States, agreed to give way to Pacquiao.
?May I commend the 2007 SEA Games? most outstanding athlete and swimmer Miguel Molina for giving way to our national pride Manny Pacquiao as flag-bearer for the RP Team,? said Puentevella.
?As chef-de-mission I never said anything until I communicated with the swimming icon. Miguel is quite a role model, too. This has saved the POC board the agony of looking for a win-win solution especially since I was standing next to President Arroyo when Manny was being given the honor as envoy to the Games. These two athletes make us proud.?
Fencing president Celso Dayrit, who is running for the POC?s top post, also said making Pacquiao the flag-bearer is not a bad idea.
He said Russia is also working out a plan to make tennis star Maria Sharapova as its flag-bearer while this year?s Olympic host China made Houston Rockets center Yao Ming as its flag bearer in the 2004 Athens Games, both national icons like Pacquiao.
?That?s the way to do it, looking for a national icon to inspire our athletes,? said Dayrit, who a month back criticized Cojuangco?s plans of moving the POC elections from during the Olympic year to before the quadrennial meet.
