Side Bar Exclusive: He is the man who sang, “Sometimes When We Touch”, at television host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s show and the same ‘little-big’ man whom another quintessential American comedian, Adam Carolla, grossly calls ‘idiot’ and ‘unfit’ to run for high public office in recent months, America’s favorite and world boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao has proven once again his resilience even after his devastating defeat in 2007 congressional contest against dazzling Darlene Custodio in the first district of South Cotabato, Philippines.
Yes, he sees himself as perfectly fit to serve. He, in fact, has made a history, not just in achieving for the ring of madness but for another milestone of the Philippines’ democratic history last May 10 elections: the first boxer to win a congressional seat.
“Now, it’s my turn to make Sarangani a progressive province,” says Pacquiao, the newly elected congressman of Sarangani.
In what could have been a daunting mission in toppling a well-entrenched political clan that has served over 20 years even before the creation of the province of Sarangani in 1992, Pacquiao comfortably scored a swift victory over Roy Chongbian, a multi-billionaire top executive of his family-owned giant shipping lines, in all towns and even in the capital of Sarangani, Alabel.
After winning a multi-million dollar boxing match via unanimous decision over Joshua Clottey of Ghana, Africa at the Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Texas last March 13, Pacquiao took no qualms and remissions after his hazardous training in the Wild Card Gym In Hollywood and in the hills of Griffith Park of Los Angeles. And after his wondrous trail in Dixieland while looking ahead of what was to come during his less than a week stopover at his Los Angeles home in Hancock Park and at his rented apartment at the Palazzo, he gained his composure and flew back to the Philippines to kick off his massive political campaign in Sarangani.
As he responded to the pulse of Sarangani, Pacquiao did hit the core issues just as he studied them. And there upon, he set his feet along with his henchmen in the hinterlands and stoke the hearts of the villagers as he courted them to vote for him to congress. Whatever crafted plans he had in mind, he sought their sentiments banking on his sincerity to help them out from the bondage of the following: absence of hospital, inadequate schools and insufficient livelihood programs.
“Pacquiao’s successful foray into politics serves as a lens through which this generation must study the inspiration it has and pass one’s understanding onto another,” says Loue Martinez, polls survey analyst who conducted the exclusive 2010 pre-election polls survey of Investigative Agency of Journalists in the lone district of Sarangani for the congressional contest between Pacquiao and Chongbian, during an exclusive interview today with this writer.
As for his being a hero engaging in the politics of achievements, “the division between ‘old and new Pacquiao’ blurs the distinction between the rich and the poor, which Pacquiao may have bridged in himself for all his makings and lack of pretentions,” Martinez adds.
Born in Kibawe, Bukidnon in Mindanao, Philippines, Pacquiao went through his life under a small “nipa hut” and smarted out in the dusty lanes seeking empty cans and bottles all for him to sell during his formative years in South Cotabato.
Unlike one-time Pink Floyd leader Roger Waters who is covering New York and L.A. with “projections, wheat pastings, and chalk drawings” of an anti-war quote from President Dwight D. Eisenhower according to New York Times, Pacquiao, a boxer, an actor, a singer and a young multi-millionaire, may just be hosting now an era of hope and optimism more than just legislations in the halls of the 15th Congress of the Philippines.
On may just hope that Pacquiao is not bent on contributing a series of covers depicting the futuristic adventurer Buck Rogers on the walls of congress.
But, Pacquiao is an ocular embodiment, whether he be in entertainment or politics, of a new age revolution.
The American public sees him: cheerful, generous and enterprising one. But, most of all, a man of rare energies to entertain.
