He may be talking too much about matters pertaining to national interest, but Sen. Manny Pacquiao swears that sports also plays a pivotal part in his platform for good governance.
On Monday afternoon, Pacquiao dipped his fingers into the world of sports and gave a sneak peek into what it would be like in case he wins in the May elections.
Taking part in an online Q&A, I simply had to park momentarily by the side of the road and wear a different hat.
You see, I have been assigned to tail Pacquiao until D-Day in May and occasionally provide information about his whereabouts and activities while also doing my job to close the pages of sports.
The first time I heard about the plan to assign me to cover Pacquiao’s political campaign, I was thrilled because of the nature of the beat.
“From sports to politics,” said one fellow sports scribe.
It’s not as if I have grown tired of sports.
It’s just that it would be a huge challenge to try my hand at writing politics, away from the usual terms and phrases that are associated with sportswriting.
The change in scenery is also one thing that didn’t make me think twice about accepting my new role.
A few years ago, while I was with a different paper, I tried covering the Miss Universe pageant.
But since credentials were hard to come by, as they were almost exclusively given to the entertainment beat writers, I wasn’t able to cover the beauty contest.
Instead, another guy was assigned to cover, leaving me with a broken heart that nobody knew of.
