“WHEREFORE rejoice?” Thus asked a Roman senator of Julius Caesar’s triumphant entry into Rome. At the risk of being called a spoiler or a “kontrabida” [villain], I dare ask the same question of the hysteria over Manny Pacquiao’s return to the Philippines. Mind you, I did not bet on Erik Morales, although I honestly thought he could win — as I did not see the hype in his training.
It was a non-title fight that Pacquiao won. Morales was on the downhill — “palaos na!” Boxing is a non-major Olympic event. Most of us love winners and popular personalities but only when they are hot items. Then we forget them easily. Who still remembers Velasco, Espinosa or the Bad Boy from Dadiangas?
The Pacquiao brouhaha only seeks to entertain and make us forget the unsolvable problems that have confronted us for so long. It brings to mind the “Thrilla in Manila” and the Miss Universe pageant during the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship.
Now comes the too familiar spectacle of poor boys donning gloves and sparring or fighting in dingy streets in the hope of becoming another Pacquiao and escaping poverty. They are cleverly diverted from the real cause of their poverty and the most effective means of resolving it — which is not by becoming a boxing world champion.
A few days ago, a number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) came back to the country with tales of horrors from the countries where they had been forced to work by poverty at home. What has happened to their complaints? What will happen to them whom we have called heroes?
What comparable honors do we bestow upon the other OFWs whose dollar remittances have saved the Philippine economy, when they return to the country?
Many among us have not only overacted but also persisted in being hypocritical. Hello, anyone? “Wherefore rejoice? What conquests brings he home? What tributaries follow him to Rome, to grace in captive bonds his chariot wheels?”
ARCHIMEDES S. MARQUEZ, 429 Gov. A. Pascual St., Navotas, Metro Manila
