The choice of Manny Pacquiao as the ?Filipino of the Year? by the editors of the Philippine Daily Inquirer was clearly an honest recognition of the tremendous impact Pacquiao made on the nation with his devastating victory over the legendary featherweight Marco Antonio Barrera and a tribute to a young man who overcame the poverty of his childhood to virtually conquer the boxing world.
While some of our colleagues have displayed a propensity to pounce on Pacquiao?s slightest indiscretion and sometimes blow it out of proportion, the fact remains that even as a child he trudged the streets of his hometown of General Santos City selling bread and ice cream and turned over whatever he earned to his mother to help her along after his father had left them, providing a touching insight into the values and virtues that he held dear even at such a tender age.
