LAS VEGAS Nevada certainly glories in its Mafia-related origins, the stuff of Hollywood legend. In a city where ?Cash is King,? the hospitality and entertainment industries of that city maintain a strict moral neutrality about all its visitors and the fun they seek. Las Vegas is a playground, and high rollers, whatever the sources of their fortunes, are welcome.
As it is, the bookmakers are raking in the bets, with most odds in favor of Pinoy pugilist Manny Pacquiao and some boxing gurus predicting Briton Ricky Hatton to hit the canvass between the ninth and 11th rounds. If our ?People?s Champion? (or, as some British boxing pundits have taken to calling him, the ?Mexicutioner? ? in contrast to Hatton?s monicker as the ?Manchester Mexican?) has the entire country on tenterhooks and the electric companies nervous of the strain the national frenzy will cause on the electric grid, then the British have the Hatton mania, too.
They are rallying behind their Southpaw ?Hitman?: Reuters reported 25,000 British fans have converged in Las Vegas for the fight. The influx of British boxing fans has been welcomed with pleasant surprise by Las Vegas? tourism officials, but while most Filipinos will have to be content viewing the fight on pay-per-view across the globe, there?s a select group of Vegas-style high rollers in for a ringside treat.
The highest roller of them all, sad to say, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?s husband, lawyer Jose Miguel Arroyo, won?t be at his accustomed ringside seat. His doctors took care to certify him medically unfit for travel ? which might also help squelch the speculation that he?s avoiding the United States because of the Federal Bureau of Investigation?s unfriendly interest in him. Since his last non-appearance at a Pacquiao bout, this kind of malicious speculation has been well nigh rampant.
But there will be Filipino officialdom a-plenty at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, ranging from members of the Cabinet to members of the Philippines? House of Representatives. The Speaker of the House, for one, has proclaimed himself as an integral part of ?Team Pacquiao,? and has brought along his two sons for the ?East vs. West? spectacle. He says he paid his own way and didn?t bring any congressmen with him. That there are a couple of dozen others reportedly in Las Vegas to watch the fight is just one of those amazing coincidences no one can explain.
Representative Matias Defensor, taking up the cudgels for his Speaker, as well as for his own son, Michael Defensor, virtuously announced that ?Pacquiao needs moral support? ? as if the entire country, and Filipinos in every continent and time zone keeping vigil to cheer on the country?s favorite athlete, won?t be up.
Quoting Fr. James Reuter, S.J., Representative Defensor added that ?Cheer. Cheer hard because that cheering will make a basketball player jump 12 to 24 inches higher or prolong his stamina by several minutes,? which is all well and good. But surely Pacquiao doesn?t need the pipsqueak voices of the usual suspects in government to do that.
If we had true servant-leaders, the congressmen would have put together a kitty to pay for the trip of 50 of Pacquiao?s provincemates, or established a national lottery to send a similar number of ordinary citizens to cheer.
The presence of government officials in Pacquiao?s fights has never been about real friendship, it?s rather about publicity and living it up to show that these officials rule the roost. At a reported $8,000 for ringside, and anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 for decent seats and $150 for the cheapest bleachers, we can be sure no self-respecting Philippine official will be far from the best seats in the arena. And that doesn?t include airline tickets, hotel accommodations, limousine services, celebratory champagne dinners, shopping, and hitting the gambling tables and catching the shows.
None of these things, all our officials will insist, is on the public dime. Never mind if attending the fight would surely put a gigantic dent in any honest official?s bank account. While Pacquiao seeks a purse and a title through his own brains and brawn, hooting and slapping him on the back will be the dirty dozens who live by the Imeldific slogan, ?some are smarter than others.?
Or, as someone from an earlier age put it, ?What are we in power for??
