LOS ANGELES, California — An old book, “Havana,” is a terrific read. There are still the original details, vivid as the bar and streets Ernest Hemingway had haunted while writing the “Old Man and the Sea,” for everybody to enjoy and see.
To the first-time visitor, the most distinct pictures in Fidel Castro’s Cuba are the vintage 1930 cars, perfect for the museum but still in full service oftentimes as taxis, on historic cobblestone streets over which loom monumental buildings totally untouched by modernity.
The continuing struggle, the life and longing of the native Cubano, is an altogether intriguing modern-day story.
In that Hemingway masterpiece, the old man Santiago finally landed a great marlin after having gone fishless for over 80 days out at sea.
What would follow was a long, bloody struggle, with Santiago finally landing his catch but succeeding to take it to shore only after the great fish had been devoured by sharks, reduced to bare bones.
* * *
This little tale will also be about a fishing expedition, not for a marlin but a whale, a most unusual species.
In a previous column, this whale had merely appeared as an unidentified heavyweight.
This very important fellow, a big backer of boxer Manny Pacquiao, had the great luck of having stayed in the exclusive Villa 1 inside MGM Grand, a sleeping place reserved only for kings and the richest of the rich.
Although that big-spending heavyweight was not named, his identity subsequently became known based on information from his visitors and friends in the $20,000 (P1.08 million)-a-night grand villa.
“No need to mention his name, alam na dito, napaka-immoral ng mga lintek na ‘yan, daming naghihirap dito,” texted one newswoman from Manila.
* * *
The story about this secret supporter of Manny Pacquiao was supposed to have ended before the boxer’s homecoming.
In fact, the story should’ve been disregarded after aides and boot-lickers around the secret heavyweight claimed the Filipino’s stay in the P1-million-a-night MGM villa was purely complimentary.
Case closed. Nobody was at fault.
This reporter — after seeing Pacquiao wage a great losing battle — sent his things home, filled a small bag with the barest necessities then took off for Havana to help select and pick a coach for a boxing program of the Governors’ League of the Philippines.
Of course, before the Cuban trip, we invested and asked a trusted fellow to do some detective work.
His specific task was to determine the rare people that are granted complimentary stay in the opulent MGM Grand villa.
* * *
Here are the findings: No living Filipino could’ve qualified for that claimed complimentary stay.
Not even Pacquiao’s heavyweight backer, no matter how rich he may be, would’ve been granted the distinction.
For one, the MGM Villa is offered free to high rollers with a table credit line of no less than $5 million.
Rarities ushered into the villa are fetched by Lear jet from anywhere in the United States.
They are serviced by stretch limousine anywhere they travel out and back into the hotel.
They are provided personal cooks, masseurs, the works, during their stay.
If Bill Gates, say, happened to have been a gambler, he would have qualified.
But definitely, no Filipino would’ve been in that class, claimed our detective whose services, by the way, were offered free — complimentary.
* * *
Maybe if, say, MGM happens to be negotiating to buy an island to be developed into a casino in the Philippines, the secret Pinoy heavyweight, with his association and clout, would have gotten the villa free.
So I asked: What if MGM is trying to sell slot machines to the Philippines?
No way, explains my detective-friend, that deal is too small, peanuts.
So would you say Ferdinand Marcos himself would’ve not made it there?
No, he may have been one of the richest, but his riches were all kept secret.
So who among the rich entertainers could’ve lived at Villa 1?
OK, maybe Sinatra, or Elvis, but I am not too sure, either.
Who was the last guy known to have gotten a free stay at the villa?
Jim Peng, a Taiwanese communications mogul, who raked in millions dealing special radio sets for private use around the US.
* * *
Who’s Jim Peng?
He was one of the great rollers. He impregnated his secretary in Taipei, took the girl to the US, where she gave birth, but the mistress was subsequently killed by Peng’s wife who caught up with her in Orange County in the mid-1990s.
You really did your work, I commended my friend.
Peng was a rarity. He was pampered like a king. He’s still around. His wife has been granted parole, but I don’t think they’re living together.
Now, are you saying that the claim about the RP heavyweight getting complimentary stay at the MGM villa was pure fiction?
Of course. Unless he also gambled very big in Vegas.
But the RP heavyweight was never seen even once around the gaming tables at MGM.
You don’t get me. The great rollers do it upstairs, somewhere else.
What? This is getting to be crazier.
But there’s such a place as Hidden Las Vegas where extraordinary gamblers do their thing, away from the eyes of the public.
So how do they call these big, rare gamblers?
Not mere high rollers, they are called Whales!
Why whales?
‘Coz they’re truly big, grand, not mere heavyweights.
