MANNY PACQUIAO NEEDS PROTECTION. Not from other boxers or from shady boxing promoters and managers. Not even from kidnappers who might want to dip into his million-dollar purse. No, he needs protection from the hordes of Filipino politicians who are already using him and will continue to use him for their own benefit. Now the surest way to get publicity is to stick close to Pacquiao. With so many cameras clicking and grinding in front of him, it is inevitable for anybody close to him to land in the newspapers or appear on TV. Sharing the stage with him is even better. One notorious politician even sang duets with him on the Plaza Miranda stage.
Manny is obviously flattered by all the attention and hoopla. That is something relatively new to this once poor boy from “GenSan,” Cotabato. And that has been the downfall of many champions. A boxer has a shelf life of, at most, 10 years. After that, it is all downhill. At age 35, a boxer is old, unlike basketball players who can still play competitive basketball up to age 50 if he is really good—as in the case of Robert Jaworski, who would probably be still playing now had he not been elected senator.
We have had many international champions. (Pacquiao is not even an international champion yet. He did not win any championship in the bout against Erik Morales. What he got is the consuelo de bobo for boxers who do not make the top 10 contenders of the different weight divisions.) But except for one—Flash Elorde—they all faded away, poor and forgotten, the millions of pesos they won during their prime, gone. Many of them now live like paupers, objects of pity, not getting enough help from the government that pampered them while they were still up there.
That is what I’m afraid could happen to Manny Pacquiao. He’s on top of the world now, a national hero, a multimillionaire, courted and flattered by politicians. They will use him and exploit him while he is still popular. They will surely use him to campaign for and endorse them. They may even use him to campaign for the ratification of a new constitution. And Manny may be seduced by all the flattery.
But wait until he starts losing fights. Watch the politicians and people turn away from him. This is what Pacquiao should watch out against. He should watch out for himself.
But alas, Pacquiao is already showing signs that he may follow in the footsteps of all the unfortunate ex-champions who have gone before him. One sign is conspicuous consumption. One of the things he’s done was buy himself a Porsche sports car, one of the most expensive cars in the world. He is building homes and shopping malls in GenSan—the latter probably a good investment if he or his family has a knack for business. There are reports that he already has learned how to gamble. When he gets back to GenSan, it would probably be one party and drinking spree after another for him. His celebrity status has made him want to go into show business. He has already made a recording; he is entertaining notions of being a movie actor. And, horrors, he is being egged to go into politics. One day, he will suddenly discover that all his money and his friends are gone.
Of course, we are a free country. Anybody who wants to make a fool of himself is free to do so. But it is the duty of sports associations to take care of their athletes, to prevent them from sinking into the pitiful state that so many other athletes before them have sunk into. Sometimes, they have to be protected from their managers and “advisers,” from their “friends,” and, at times, even from their relatives.
And especially from politicians.
* * *
This year is the Year of the Fire Dog in the Chinese calendar. The fire dog means a red dog, probably, like the Australian dingo and the American coyote, which is not really red but brown; and are, technically, not dogs although they belong to the dog family.
In the Philippines, “red dogs” are plentiful. They can be found in the streets, thin and scraggly-looking, the so-called “askals” (for “asong kalye”). They are not the handsome, imported purebreeds that their owners like to strut around. No, they are the native Filipino dogs that Filipinos take home as cute and lovable puppies, but once they grow up into unhandsome adults, they are turned out by their owners into the streets to run around with other dogs and scrounge for food in the garbage cans where they pick up disease and parasites. They live a pitiful existence until disease or a passing vehicle mercifully ends it.
May the Year of the Fire Dog focus the attention of people, and of the national and local governments, to the plight of the poor askal. Even animal welfare societies have the colonial mentality of favoring dogs with pedigrees. Cara Philippines is the lone society I know that focuses on Filipino dogs. Its slogan is “Proudly Pinoy,” and its pet shows emphasize native dogs and cats.
Most local government units have no humane program for the askals. The existing programs of some cities and municipalities are to shoot down strays, or to catch them and then confine them in cramped cages until they are gassed to death. Even the richest cities have no dog pounds or animal shelters: Quezon City, Makati and Manila, the three richest cities in Metro Manila that can afford to have them, strangely, have none.
We have a law against cruelty to animals (the Animal Welfare Act, or AWA) but it is not being implemented. On the contrary, dog-eating is a popular vice in a supposedly civilized city like Baguio and surrounding areas. Many askals, alas, end up on the dining tables of dog-eaters.
May the Year of the Fire Dog end this barbaric practice.
