BOXING hero Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao certainly whacked a colossal victory in his January 22 fight against Mexican Erick “El Terrible” Morales in Las Vegas, Nevada.
But, a bigger triumph awaits the new “Mexican Assassin” back home in General Santos.
The hard puncher’s long wish for his estranged parents to kiss-and-make-up has been on the works now with his 55-year-old mother Dionisia even declaring she was open to accepting back Rosalio, the boxer’s father.
The victorious puncher missed a sight last week that he has long been awaiting to see.
The boxer’s parents on January 23 met (seemingly by chance) at the dxBB RGMA Super Radyo station and tightly hugged each other, the first time in more than 15 years.
As a cut from Manny’s new album played on air, the couple was unmindful of the people around them as the teary-eyed Dionisia approached her husband, a scene that easily lifts from a romantic movie.
The two exchanged pleasantries where Dionisia thanked Rosalio for the love and prayers he had extended to their children and asked him to continue loving them.
“Sayang, hindi ito nakita ni Manny,” a reporter blurted.
The scene was repeated later in the evening on national television when the couple embraced at Manny’s residence while being interviewed by Mike Enriquez over the news program 24-Oras.
On that program, Rosalio told Manny (who was only getting then an audio feed) that he and Dionisia have patched things up already.
Dionisia on the other hand said she has always opened her doors to her separated husband.
The Pacquiao couple started their marriage life way back in 1975 in Tango, a coastal village in Glan, Sarangani Province, where Manny was born in 1978.
After residing for 10 years in that place, Rosalio said they moved to Labangal, in this city, when Manny was in fourth grade.
The couple parted ways after nearly 20 years of marriage when Rosalio, who takes roots from Pinamungajan in Cebu, left Dionisia and their children to work on a farm in Tampakan, South Cotabato.
But, Dionisia later found out that Rosalio had been living with another woman.
She said learning about what Rosalio did was too painful for her, having previous experiences of being abandoned.
Dionisia’s father left his family, leaving her mother Cristina Daprigan to fend for her nine children who were then still young.
Dionisia had a first husband who also left her for another woman in 1970.
Amid such experiences, Dionisia, a Waray, kept all the pain to herself and raised her children on her own, making sure they would continue to respect their father.
She said, “Manny loves his father very much.”
Since Rosalio left, the champion boxer, who had worked in menial jobs like doing laundry and selling bread in the streets, has always been wishing for his father’s return.
When Manny started making it big in high-stake fights, he told friends about that long desire of seeing his parents live together again.
Her mother said until now his son would asked her in private when his father would return home, “and I would tell him to just wait.”
Rosalio, who saw his son’s fight on January 22 on a television set at a barbershop, said each time he visits his son at his residence in Labangal, Dionisia was never around.
“We have long separated, but there is no love lost,” remarked Rosalio in the vernacular. He now tends a vegetable stall at the public market.
Asked over the radio about the chances of reconciling with her husband, Dionisia said in mixed vernacular “Sa ngalan ng Panginoon at ni Mama Mary, welcome siya kanunay sa akoa.”
Dionisia said in due time she would ask the family–her children and Rosalio, to sit down and talk about the matter of giving another chance for the family to live as one.
Citing a lyric in her son’s song, “Para sa Iyo ang Labang Ito,” that calls for every Filipino to unite, Dionisia said there is no reason we do not unite as a family.
Indeed, Manny has been a rallying figure by a country so divided each time he gets atop the ring.
For now, Manny’s parents might have done one part of the “kiss-and-make-up” process.
Would the other part be accomplished this time he is home? (RGRebollido)
