EXCLUSIVE EDITORIAL from Hollywood, California – Of course, Emmanuel “Manny-Pacman” Pacquiao still has that tendency to use this so-called a “haymaker punch”, that wild swinging punch he must throw with all of his weight behind it in an attempt to knock out Sugar Shane Mosley on May 7 at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Yes, we saw him using the same whenever he counters a wild attack.
But, it’s not going to be the case for his orientation in the political world. No real “haymaker punch”. He’ll be dribbling a “ball”, indeed. Pacquiao is bent now on shaping judgments about and reactions to political issues. And the dilemma is that he’ll be dribbling with the politics of old. He does not have clear political party-stand. He tries to cross party lines, kissing one’s party-end to another in a sense of diving for abandonement. Though he became the saving grace of the Arroyo Administration, he benefited as well from its political will. And then he quickly has shifted unto the new dispensation for another collateral empowerment and for a potential support of his hospital project in Sarangani, which is almost indicative of a “Mickey-Mouse-Play” in the new pollsters’ parlance. And that’s great but only for now. Even on the issues of birth control wherein the Roman Catholic Church for its socio-political religious fervor brings up the case of promoting a pro-life stance, Pacquiao takes the heat of uplifting his stand urging couples to control their sexual urges because he believes condoms and abortions are sinful. The boxer-turned-lawmaker was referring to House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman?s House Bill 96?An Act Providing for a National Policy on Reproductive Health, Responsible Parenthood and Population and Development?which calls on the government to provide accessible, affordable and effective reproductive health-care services, the Manila Times reported.Sure, his stance is plausible, at least for the Philippines which population has over 80% Catholic faithfuls. But, that is just all rhetoric.
And even then this stance, somewhat like conservative, would become a perpetual lens through which he may form his opinions and evaluate events.
But, would this be a precedent by which he would acquire meaning of his political agenda? Top Rank Godfather Bob Arum assured that Pacquiao will become bigger in 2011 and in the years to come. He thinks that at age 42 Pacquiao, even without credible formal higher education, will become President of the Republic of the Philippines. And he would start selling Pacquiao to US President Barrack Obama for another premature facelift and expansion of his political clout just as he did last early November when Pacquiao was whisked to Nevada after his last Friday?s workout for his fight against Antonio Margarito at the Dallas Cowboy Stadium in Texas, to endorse a lawmaker, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid for the final elections.
Also don’t expect a Sunday punch nor sucker punch from Pacquiao as he engages in the politics of the few. In fact, he is likely to dribble a potential dilemma. The Philippine politics, despite its dynamic tenet of democratic system, is bent to reach maturity in the matter of intellectualism and transparency for better governance. And while it reaches that stage of maturity, his imaging rhetoric may have just pulled him midway, to pave way for the resurrecting power of the 1970s. Of course, not one of evils but the renewed one of the new generation. Unless his stand is clear on specific issues such as neutralizing poverty, cutting off high unemplyment rate, fortifying fiscal responsibility and eradicating corruption in the government, and most of all, focusing on educating himself seriously in the better halls of the academe rather than just in the lousy non-traditional offers of substandard intellectual discipline, only then can he truly paint a better picture of himself, however justifiable it may be, when that final test comes. What the Philippines needs at this time and onward is a fine-tuned emotional intellectualism of political ascendacy, not just mere charisma of the least.
But, as he tries to dribble his ideology on the fields of nowhere, he cannot hostage himself and just become a mere public servant without the dictate of the scoundrels, sycophants and numskul politicians. They are there and will be there to play-fool the “Godfatherlike” image from the old maxim of “The Godfather”, a 1972 American gangster-drama film which chronicles the fictional Italian American Corleone crime family.
Pacquiao may lack the fundamental test of judging. But, what he needs is to be more assertive of his discerning power. For all we know, Team Pacquiao sanctuary has to be cleansed. And unless early cleansing is done before he engages a grander campaign, his political foray even after his boxing journey will just be a sequel of expos? as in the case of “The Godfather” movie.
And who will constitute the triumverate when that final test of Pacquiao comes before he reaches forty-two?
Will it include the Celebrated Harvard Lawyer Robert Arum and political kingpin Chavit Singson?
When Pacquaio reaches forty-two, Arum, born on December 8, 1931, would be ninety-one and Singson, born on June 21, 1941, eighty-one. Jews and Ilocanos are both known to live longer than the average aging races, so they say. Notwithstanding, Arum, a Jew, and Singson, an Ilocano, may just live long enough to see their prot?g? dribbling a dilemma before the public eye. Bolstering a solid political machinery is what should matter for Pacquiao, even now. That, if he truly intends to repackage his image , that is before his popularity drops. Or, conversely, he should just quit from his personal ambition to become President of the Philippines.
Mind you, at which time, Pacquiao may not have that “haymaker punch” anymore by his dollar-weight than just heap files of financial mismanagement and altered organizational and political agenda.
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