A MEETING with boxing star Manny Pacquiao is on top of the agenda of Games and Amusements Board (GAB) chairman Eric Buhain.
“The GAB exists to look after the welfare of the country?s professional athletes like him,” Buhain told the Bulletin yesterday. “Manny Pacquiao is in a different level and he needs all the assistance the GAB can provide.”
Buhain is initiating the move to hold talks with Pacquiao following the brouhaha that resulted following his fight with Mexican Erik Morales last March 19 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“The GAB?s legal division can look and review documents that are being handed over to him to sign. The GAB can help him out in these matters,” said Buhain, who was at ringside at the MGM Grand when Pacquiao dropped a 12-round unanimous decision to Morales.
Buhain reiterated that Pacquiao is a “national treasure” and that President Arroyo remains his biggest fan.
“He is going to get even bigger so we have to protect him,” added Buhain, who was appointed as GAB chairman in late-November after a two-year stint as chairman of the Philippine Sports Commission.
Buhain and Pacquiao met recently in Cebu, where they attended a boxing promotion held in Lapu-Lapu City.
Pacquiao is currently embroiled in a controversy with US promoter Murad Muhammad, who he has sued for allegedly stealing his money.
Meanwhile, the GAB named Rodel Mayol as its Boxer of the Month for April 2005 for successfully defending his Orient-Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) minimumweight crown against Takayuki Korogi on April 4 in Osaka, Japan.
Super-feather champ Randy Suico, who retained his OPBF 130-lb throne with a vicious knockout of Thai Muangfahlek Kiatwichean in Lapu-Lapu City on April 27 and Dindo Castanares, who kept his World Boxing Foundation super-lightweight diadem when Australian Steven Marks failed to come out for the fifth stanza during their April 30 face-off, shared honorable mention honors.
The decision to vote Mayol, ranked No. 1 in the world, was made yesterday afternoon during the GAB?s monthly ratings committee meeting.
