LAST WEEK Manny Pacquiao was received in the US capital?Washington, D.C.?like very few Filipinos have been. With Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as his host and personal guide, he and wife Jinkee were taken on a grand tour of Capitol Hill before proceeding to a meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House Oval Office. According to wire reports, Obama presented Pacquiao with bags of M&Ms chocolate candy, and a watch with the presidential seal.
Perhaps a few of us may be wondering what brought about this special treatment of one of our countrymen when Presidents and politicians often have a hard time setting up meetings with their counterparts in the United States.
Definitely the visit was part of the buildup for the coming Manny Pacquiao-Shane Mosley fight scheduled for May 7 in Las Vegas. But not many boxers, foreign or stateside, have been given the red carpet treatment by high US officials prior to an important fight. In fact, I cannot think of anyone who was accorded the same attention as Manny Pacquiao.
Part of the answer may be found in the similar backgrounds of the two men?Pacquiao and Reid?leading to common interests in both the boxing and political arenas.
Manny Pacquiao was born Emmanuel Dapidron Pacquiao on Dec. 17, 1978 in the little-known and impoverished town of Kibawe, in southern Bukidnon province. The place had no schools, no hospital. When he was 2, the family moved to an even more isolated place called Tango in the province of Sarangani. Tango was about three miles from the nearest village.
Harry Reid was born in a little-known place called Searchlight, Nevada, the son of a laundrywoman and a miner. Their home had no indoor toilet, hot water or telephone. Searchlight had no high school, so Reid stayed with relatives in Henderson, some 40 miles away where he finished his secondary education. For a while, he was an amateur boxer before joining politics.
When Pacquiao first ran for a seat in the House of Representatives, he lost to Darlene Antonino-Custodio, granddaughter of the late Sen. Gaudencio Antonino. In a gracious post-election statement, Custodio said, ?More than anything, I think people were not prepared to lose him as their boxing icon.? On his second try, Pacquiao defeated Roy Chiongbian, a US-educated businessman from a powerful political family in Sarangani province.
In his first bid for a US Senate seat, Reid lost to Paul Laxalt, a popular former Republican governor and a close ally of Ronald Reagan. Several years later, upon the retirement of Laxalt, Reid would win the seat he has occupied since 1987. Incidentally, with the EDSA revolt anniversary approaching, I might mention that Paul Laxalt was Reagan?s special emissary to the Marcos regime in the days before the revolt broke out. It was also Laxalt who called from the White House to tell Marcos, ?I think you should cut, and cut cleanly. I think the time has come.? Marcos replied he was ?very, very disappointed.? (From Lou Cannon?s biography of President Reagan, ?The Role of a Lifetime.?)
Manny Pacquiao starred in a movie ?Anak ng Kumander? with Ara Mina and Valerie Concepcion. He was also the hero in a Metro Manila Film Festival entry ?Wapakman.?
Harry Reid played himself in the movie ?Traffic? and also starred in the film documentary ?Sand and Sorrow? which detailed genocide in Sudan. His role as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission was re-enacted in the film ?Casino.?
Reid has one daughter and four sons while Pacquiao has two boys and two girls.
Many mid-term elections in the United States are a disaster for the party in power. The Democrats under Bill Clinton lost control of the House to Newt Gingrich in 1994 while Republicans under George W. Bush suffered the same fate when Democrat Nancy Pelosi became the first female House Speaker in 2006.
Last year was no different. The House which was controlled by the Democrats saw a new leader emerge in Republican John Boehner. The Senate was a different matter as the Democrats were able to survive the GOP onslaught but only by a narrow margin.
One of the seats that was considered critical for continued Democratic control of the Senate was that of Harry Reid of Nevada. A few weeks before the November elections, according to a Time-CNN opinion poll of voters, Reid was trailing his GOP opponent, Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle, with the gap widening.
Pacquiao?s promoter, Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank, a professional boxing promotion company based in Las Vegas, and a good friend of Senator Reid, brought his boxing superstar to address a Reid rally with a sizable Filipino-American crowd in attendance. Apparently, the move helped tilt the balance in favor of the Democratic Senate Majority Leader, giving him victory at the last minute, a triumph that also helped preserve Democratic control of the US Senate.
Pacquiao?s visit to Washington hosted by Reid was payment for the critical support given in the senatorial race.
In 2010, Time Magazine named Pacquiao one of the world?s most influential people for his boxing exploits and his clout and strength with the Filipino people. In November 2009, he became only the sixth Filipino to grace the cover of the magazine after Presidents Manuel Quezon, Ramon Magsaysay, Ferdinand Marcos, Corazon Aquino, and Filipino actress and environmentalist, Chin Chin Gutierrez.
In its cover story by Howard Chua-Eoan* and Ishaan Tharoor, the question is asked, ?Can Manny Pacquiao be more than the best boxer in the world? Pacquiao knows he wants something more than he has, more than boxing can give… and repeats what seems to be both an assertion and a lesson learned. ?Di ako bobo?, he says in Tagalog.?
When the President of the most powerful nation on earth is willing to give you a few minutes of his time, it can only mean you have something more to offer than just fists of iron.
*Howard Chua-Eoan, ?Howie? to friends and relatives, is news director of Time Magazine. He is also the nephew of Speaker Sonny Belmonte. His mother and Mrs. Betty Go Belmonte are sisters.
