FILIPINO boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, who is running for the Senate in the May elections, has arrived in Las Vegas for his fight with American Timothy Bradley this Sunday. The bout is only three days away but I haven’t decided yet on whether I would keep my ritual, which is to go for pay-per-view (PPV) on this one, or not. Is my being lackadaisical proof of the claim of one boxing website that the Pacquiao-Bradley fight has so far gone under the radar?
There is supposed to be one selling point for the bout, which is that it is the Pacman’s last fight before he retires. But Bradley is no Floyd Mayweather Jr., who has a bigger PPV pull. Besides, this will be Pacquiao’s third fight with Bradley and the previous two bouts were not that exciting. Finally, Pacquiao’s controversial statement re: same-sex marriage rubbed off some luster from the bout.
Pacquiao-Bradley 3 will be held as the campaign for the May polls intensifies. The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has dismissed calls to order the postponement of the fight and suggestions that the bout violates provisions of the Fair Election Act. So Philippine media is free to cover the fight, which should push Pacquiao back into public consciousness. That could help arrest his slide in the ratings in the recent surveys.
I say Pacquiao making good his retirement vow is dependent on the outcome of the elections. If he wins a Senate seat, he would be forced to retire because his job would require it. Unlike in the House of Representatives where he was merely representing Sarangani province, in the Senate his constituency is nationwide. He could not longer afford to be absent during sessions to train for fights. But if he loses, he won’t have a job to keep him busy. I therefore doubt if he would retire.
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Rep. Jospeh ?Ace? Durano is officially the campaign manager of Grace Poe’s Partido Galing at Puso but he has been low key since the campaign period for the May polls started. Thus I was surprised when he broke his silence to denounce the recent abominable act of the camp of PDP-Laban standard bearer Rodrigo Duterte, which is to publicize a fake Pulse Asia survey that had Duterte on top.
?We are, therefore, very concerned with what appears to be a misinformation drive being waged by the supporters of other candidates, particularly Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. From fake endorsements to fake meetings to fake surveys, they are flooding social media with baseless and exaggerated claims that have all been denied by the supposed sources,? Durano said.
But it wasn’t only Durano or the Poe camp that exposed this act of fakery. Ronald Homes, president of Pulse Asia Research Inc. also did.
?It has come to our attention that a survey allegedly conducted from March 21-25, 2016, for ABS-CBN is being attributed to Pulse Asia,? Holmes said in a statement. ?We did not conduct said survey. We don?t conduct surveys during Holy Week, Holy Thursday and Good Friday, in particular.?
On this, I will give Durano the last word:
?The Duterte camp seems to have no qualms about playing fast and loose with facts and figures in the hope that they will fool people in the frenzy of the campaign. This is bothersome: a candidate that deceives Filipinos during the campaign will deceive Filipinos if they win. That is the logical conclusion. I hope Mayor Duterte will discipline his supporters and campaign staff for spreading fake survey results and other spurious claims to deceive the electorate.?
