Today?s fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, being televised live in all sport stadiums in Manila, reminds one of the movie Gladiator.
In that movie, Commodus, who had to kill his father to become Rome?s emperor, gave Romans a regular fare of bloodshed to distract their attention.
A Roman senator in the movie said of Commodus: We underestimated him. He knows what Rome is. Rome is the mob. Conjure up magic for them and they will be distracted.
Today?s ring brawl has the potential of landing among the best fights of the century due to what many consider as the best matched fighters in the super featherweight division.
Gloria Arroyo has been hanging onto the tails of Pacquiao?s fame for all its worth in her wishful thought that some of Pacquiao?s star quality that is coupled with a huge popularity among boxing fans in the country ? and they are legion ? would rub on to her.
So popular was he and a hero in his hometown that Gloria, desperate for her endorsed victory to prove that hers was not a kiss of death, tapped Pacquiao, who was persuaded by her to run for Congress in the 2004 elections in his home province, South Cotabato, but was soundly beaten by a tiny slip of a feisty girl, Darlene Antonino-Custodio.
The Filipino voters are not stupid. While his fans adored him for his boxing, they made a distinction between Pacquiao, the boxing champ and Pacquiao, the Gloria anointed politician. And the politician Pacquiao lost.
But Malaca?ang even played on Pacquiao?s rhetorics, empty as it is, about his fight being waged to unite Filipinos. It didn?t and it can?t.
Of course, he also could be earning a few tens of million dollars while he is at the claimed job of unifying the nation.
Gloria evidently is again using Pacquiao to gain any stretch of breathing space amid the string of controversies that has been hounding her.
After that botched National Broadband Network (NBN) where a grand kickback operation of around $130 billion was nipped in the bud, Gloria is facing a bigger crisis as a result of what is being viewed as the treasonous Joint Marine Seismic Undertaking (JMSU) that she signed with China and Vietnam, which would have serious implications on the country?s territorial claims.
The JMSU is being tied to the hundreds of millions of dollars of concessional loans that the government is seeking from China.
These cheap loans are where the rich kickbacks are ready and available.
Gloria lately encouraging Congress to pass a Baseline bill to define the boundaries of the Philippines is also comparable to exploiting Pacquiao to entertain people.
At the risk of inviting trouble from China, Gloria is hoping for a calculated move that will give the country something for the people to be distracted for the moment.
Feigning a fight with China may even provide an instant wash job on her multimillion-dollar scams involving China-funded projects.
How can anybody accuse Gloria of jumping into bed with China if she is so willing to offend it by asking Congress to rush the Baseline bill?
For the moment, however, it will be Pacquiao in the nation?s psyche particularly if Marquez kisses the canvass in today?s fight.
Gloria would clutch on anything to keep the nation?s attention away from prayer meetings, Senate witness Rodolfo Lozada Jr., mass actions and the like which expose to all and sundry the irregularities she has been committing for the past eight years that she has been in power.
If Pacquiao wins, Gloria wins so the association goes. And if he loses?
Which makes many think twice on who to place their bet on.
