WE just came from Odiongan, Romblon, where people from various classes celebrated the victory of boxing great Manny Pacquiao. Perhaps, every little town in the country behaved similarly as our town on that Sunday when our boxer won over the fabled Mexican fighter, Erik Morales.
This town, facing the Tablas Straits and Western Mindoro, and forms part of what is known as the Mimaropa region (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) has access to television and electricity since the ’70s. Hence, people in the town were fortunate to have live coverage of the event.
On that Sunday morning, I found myself with friends in the residence of Mr. Edgar Bantang, the municipal secretary whose TV was hooked to a live coverage on Dream Channel. After paying P350 to Dream, Mr. Bantang invited many of his friends to see the boxing bout at the same time that it was happening in Las Vegas.
Going around the poblacion minutes before the fight, I noticed that there were few people in the town market. Only women manned the fish and meat stands after 10 a.m. when the preliminary bouts were about to end. There was no topic worth talking about on that day except the Pacquiao fight.
My friends would later tell me that even the farmers in the mountains left their work to go to the poblacion or to the barangays where television was available. The masa preferred to see the Pacquiao fight to the sabong scheduled also that Sunday.
For all their interest in gambling, the people of Odiongan did not consider the day as time to bet their money on either Pacquiao or Morales. To them, the fight was a show of patriotism. They were in front of the television to cheer for the man from General Santos. I thought that if anyone had offered to bet on Morales, the guy would have been lynched.
It is hard to fathom why the people of Odiongan, or perhaps the whole country, love boxing so much. A boxing aficionado from Odiongan, Mr. Baltazar Firmalo, told me that boxing in the town is so popular that a boxing show has the most attendance during fiesta celebrations.
There must be something in the Filipino that is associated with fighting that makes boxing so popular as a sport. Another popular sport here is biral, a kind of native wrestling that is popular in the coastal towns of Tablas and the Visayas. This is usually played during Lent.
Between the first round and the ninth, our crowd cheered for Pacquiao. There were occasional comments on what Manny should do or should not in the fight. But when the tenth and final round came, and Manny delivered those final blows, we all went crazy shouting. I suppose the whole nation behaved the same way.
Mabuhay si Manny Pacquiao! Welcome back to the Philippines.
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Should we renegotiate VFA now?
On the proposal by some senators and leaders of NGOs to renegotiate the US-RP Visiting Forces Agreement, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. has this to say:
“It may not be timely to review the VFA while the rape case against American servicemen is undergoing court litigation. If we will do that, the government’s efforts to prosecute and convict the rape suspects may be jeopardized.”
I have no objection to this stand of Nene because this addresses the question of timing, an important aspect of our national strategy to assert our sovereignty. On the matter of changing the terms of the VFA, Senator Pimentel’s stand is clearly for review and amendment.
The senator from Mindanao is just being practical. The Americans may seize on this proposal for negotiation to stop complying with the order of the Olongapo judge. Our best option right now is to assert our rights within the VFA, even if there are areas of ambiguity in the agreement.
Our basic stand on the VFA is that it should be related to our national interest. The VFA is a strategy of the United States to maintain its presence in Asia, using the Philippines. Do we share that goal of the US, under the pretext that it is fighting “terrorism.” If we do, we should maintain the VFA. But if not, we should rescind it.
The question about status of forces, the rights and obligations of the Americans while undergoing military exercise in the Philippines, should come in as secondary.
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BRIEF NOTES. The President should consider restoring the EEIB, or its equivalent. Reason: Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales cannot function as both a collector and antismuggling czar. Morales should be responsible for increasing the revenues of government, but checking smuggling should be given to another person… The daughter of philanthropist Mrs. Baby Arenas is running for a congressional seat in Pangasinan By the way, one mayor of Pangasinan revealed in a meeting of the ULAP (umbrella group for all mayors) that former President Fidel V. Ramos is trying to encourage Dagupan Mayor Benjie Lim to run against Speaker Jose de Venecia. This could mean that FVR and Speaker JDV are having problems in dealing with local issues Mr. Henry Sy and family, the owners of Shoemart and Banco de Oro, among other firms, are taking a low profile on a merger proposal involving Banco de Oro and Equitable PCI Bank. Our sources say that, as in past practices, the Sys usually avoid public debate on issues that involve their corporate plans. After all, the source said, the Sys are strategically well positioned on the merger proposal because of their superior share in the EPCIB.
