BOXING hero Manny Pacquiao enters the vaunted pantheon of world sports legends Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Evander Holyfield. Amidst the frenzy that followed his amazing victory over Golden Boy Oscar de la Hoya, including the frenetic, almost distasteful, clustering around him of government officials determined to remind everyone they are his ?patrons,? one striking image stands out: Pacquiao before the fight, pure happiness radiating from his face as he moved through the throng to the fighting ring. Not yet victorious, he already appeared to be?unabashedly?delighted at just being given the opportunity to make boxing history. And he did.
Pacquiao?s sports heroism has unified his people, his nation. Every time he has a scheduled boxing match, the crime rate for the day is reduced to zero. Everybody wants to watch his fights. Criminals, insurgents, and soldiers alike put down their arms and weapons to watch their hero?the man with whom they identify because of the poverty to which he had been exposed; the man with whom they share aspirations in their desire to rise to wealth, glory, and fame. Every Filipino is united. The enemy is the foreigner.
Pacquiao has courageously gone to the land of the enemy to confront them and challenge them to fight with him in their own land. He humiliates the enemy before their own people, pummeling them into oblivion and knocking them down like falling dominoes, one after the other. In those days when Pacquiao is fighting Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Americans in Las Vegas (and soon the British in London?s Wembley Stadium), we become one race. There are no tribal divisions, nor do people have to speak in different languages and dialects; there are no religious conflicts among peoples who have made religion a divisive force; and there are no crimes as impoverished felons postpone their plans of victimizing wealthy tycoons. In the arenas, stadiums, or in front of television sets, there are only Filipinos watching a Filipino fighter rise to legendary fame, hitching their dreams to this one man to uplift this nation from its doldrums.
There is something, however, quite different in this man than all the rest of the Filipinos who have similarly aspired for greatness. It is Pacquiao?s steely determination to improve himself that sets him a cut above the rest, above his fans and the sycophantic people who draw close to him for political brownie points. He is bent on not just being the greatest world fighter straddling several weight divisions. More importantly, he wants to be educated. He aspires to understand more about things that are happening, and his relationship not only to others but to the world we live in. It is his search for meaning and purpose of life. In this, he is fast becoming a role model to his own children and to the millions of young Filipinos who worship him.
Pacquiao stresses that his life shows anyone can be what he wants to be as long as he strives hard and puts God in the center of his life. But there is only one Pacquiao. The harsh reality is that very few are as strikingly gifted as he is, and not all the prayers in the world will vest talent in a person where there is none. Among those very few, even fewer have been given the ability and opportunity to touch the lives of others, and to uplift people from their misery and squalor as Pacquiao has said he wants to do. His ambition in this regard is remarkable and demands respect because it is so obviously pure, anchored upon an unselfish agenda that will require much from him. But he does not need the recognition, the wealth and the connections that those who run for political office aspire for. He already has these.
Persistent stories about Pacquiao?s political ambitions, which he has not denied, frankly diminish him. A congresswoman even shamelessly offered to gift him with real property to qualify him for Congress in a district where is virtually assured of victory. It must be a strange proposition for Pacquiao, who has never required the perversion of rules to gain his boxing victories. To be clear, Pacquiao is bigger, and can be even much bigger, than any political office available to him. Being an international sports legend, he is now in a better position than he can ever be as a congressman or even a senator to accomplish what he wants for his people.
In time, Pacquiao will hopefully shed himself off the curious allure that traditional politicians at his coattails apparently still hold for him. Hopefully, he will learn that he does not need the blessing of any political godmother or godfather to enjoy, and spread, the fruits of his victories. Hopefully, he will acquire the knowledge to translate his fame and riches to concrete programs that will uplift and benefit the people he so clearly loves. Hopefully, he will learn that there is life after boxing in a non-political arena and, in the process, immortalize himself in a way that no political office can.
