MICHAEL MARLEY’S PHILIPPINE DIARY, PART 27:
CONGRESSMANNY’S LANDSLIDE VICTORY OFFICIALLY CERTIFIED BY COMELEC; LOSER CHIONGBIAN FINALLY THROWS IN TOWEL A LA DE LA HOYA; GOLDEN MAYWEATHERS DO NOT RECOGNIZE PACQUIAO’S LATEST, SENSATIONAL KNOCKOUT; NO ACCUSATIONS OF ILLEGAL DRUG USE OR STUFFING BALLOT, NOT BALUT, BOXES WITH A SIDE METH
MANILA–Every time Manny Pacquiao fights, Golden Boy feeds like porcine creatures at his trough.
Blame that on the rarely bumbling Bob Arum, who should have paid Oscar de la Hoya and his cronies to get lost instead of sharing a promotional percentage with them in an odious out of court settlement. Arum has admitted his gaffe but the wound still festers.
Latest example of that is the classless silence out of the Golden Mayweather camp (since GBP and Team Mayweather are voluntarily joined at the hip, this is my new tage for their unholy union) as to Pacquiaosa’ stunning, landslide Congressional victory in Sarangani Province.
COMELEC Attorney Michael Abas, right, raises hand of new Congressmanny Pacquiao as election results from Saragani are officially certified. Wife Jinkee, who went door to door campaigning relentlessly, smiles brightly. (Paul Bernaldez Photo/Team Pacquiao)
There’s been not a peep from the Golden Mayweather troika–de la Hoya, real shotcaller Al Haymon and Mayweather himself–about this wonderful achievement which uplifts all of boxing given the stature and prestige Pacquaio has attained in his beloved homeland.
The smart play and one which would’ve set a nice tone for the already started talks for a Pacman-Mayweather super bout was or is simple.
Ignoring Pacquio’s political success just shows how smallminded these people can be, how petty they are.
Golden Mayweather or Mayweather Golden, if you prefer, which has its grubby hands in Manny’s pockets on a continuing basis, even if he and Mayweather never fight, should have issued a concise public statement, something like this:
“As boxing promoters, we salute anything which casts our sport/business in a favorable public light. So we want to join those around the world, and in the Philippines, who are hailing Manny Pacquiao for being elected, against all odds, as a Congressman. Well done, Pacman!”
OK, they would never toss in the exclamation point but you get the concept.
Faces of the future in Sarangani Province where Fighting Congressman Manny Pacquiao is rolling up his sleeves. White Gorilla Michael Marley wonders if there is a country on the planet where the citizens are more friendly than the Philippines especially all the children who referred to him as “Hey, Joe,” which I guess is a throwback to WWII and America’s GI Joes who fought alongside brave Filipino soldiers. Marley’s father, fighter pilot Donald, of the US Army Air Force, was among them. (Paul Bernaldez Photo/Team Pacquiao)
Not only do the Goldens profit from every Manny fight, they are trying to compete with Arum and his Top Rank team in promoting fighters from the Philippines and bouts in that country.
Evidently, none of the Goldens have what my Jewish friends refer to as a “yiddishe kop” meaning a real mind for business.
You don’t have to be Jewish, or speak Hebrew or know the difference between Tel Aviv and Texarkana to make such a public gesture.
But they didn’t and they won’t.
Class tells, as the saying goes.
The Golden Mayweather zipped lips on Pacman’s massive polling place KO over sourpuss billionaire Roy Chiongbian speaks volumes, doesn’t it?
Chiongbian quit on his stool just like Oscar did.
Having stopped Oscar and sent him into ring retirement, Pacquiao rushed to his corner and told him, “You’re still my idol!”
Last week, when they crossed paths at a radio station in Gensan, Pacman told his political foe that their fight “was nothing personal” and gave him a handshake and a hug.
Knowing that politics, American or Filipino, is the art of the practical and the possible, I’m sure Pacman will work going foreward with his ultra rich foes, the Chiongbian-Alcantra-Dominguez clans, in Sarangani.
As far as Manny is concerned, when a fight is over it is over and his mission is to deliver for the common people. Those billionaire powerbrokers may become his allies in working to make the poor province prosper over time.
Pacman is a working together works kind of fellow. He’s a guy who says, “When I eat, everybody eats.” I truly think his will be the politics of inclusion rather than exclusion.
Class tells and Pacquiao exdues it.
Silence is not always Golden.
(Thanks to photographer Paul Bernaldez for the special photos and props to DSource Guillermo who, as far as I know, coined the term “Congressmanny.” Good one, Naptown colleague, good one.)
