MANILA – The news, for once, made one proud to be a Filipino. The former baker boy from General Santos, Manny Pacquiao, had wrested the world featherweight boxing championship from Marco Antonio Barrera. He won no title other than the acknowledgment that he had convincingly thrashed the world champion.
The image of Pacquiao draped in the Philippine flag, fists jabbing the air in triumph, was enough to dispel the implacably bad news that had marked an early election season. News of taint and instability – corruption, impeachment and coup rumors – had, for the moment, yielded to a contagion of euphoria after Pacquiao’s victory. “It was like EDSA all over again,” noted editorial writer Conrado de Quiros, referring, of course, to the people-power movements that had deposed presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada; “the much-abused and lowly-regarded Filipino doing the near impossible, pushing his way into greatness armed with heart and epic talent.”
