IT is easy for one to understand and draw inspiration from the beauty of the life story of a former gymnasium janitor who became a world boxing champion when he has gone through the pains of poverty and felt the pangs of hunger.
Philippine Vice President Jejomar ?Jojo? Binay, who grew up in the squalor of poverty to become the undefeated mayor of Makati and the country?s Vice President, jogged with former world miniflyweight champion Donnie Nietes in Murcia, Negros Occidental last week and was so inspired by the life story of the Negros fighter that he has vowed to help more poor boys rise out of poverty by supporting professional boxing.
?You can now tell everybody that I am committed to support Philippine boxing and I am offering the Makati Coliseum as the venue for the search for the next Filipino boxing hero,? Vice President Binay told me Friday in a call that was supposed to be about the establishment of housing projects in the two towns of North Cotabato, M?lang and Magpet, where my brothers, Efren and Joselito, are the mayors.
The talk, held at the Coconut Palace, official residence of the Philippine vice president, in the sprawling Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex in Manila, strayed from housing projects for government workers and the rural poor to boxing after Vice President Binay related his recent encounter with former world miniflyweight champion Donnie Nietes in Bacolod City.
The life story and the ring conquests of Nietes, who will fight Mexican Ramon Garcia Hirales on October 8 in Bacolod City for the world junior flyweight title, apparently impressed upon Vice President Binay the impact of the sport on rural boys who would have otherwise continued to live in the squalor of poverty were it not for boxing.
Nietes, now 28, son of a commercial photographer who made money by documenting the happy and sad moments in the lives of people in Murcia, used to be a janitor in the ALA Boxing Gym in Cebu City who watched the other boxers spar as he cleaned the floor.
Nietes would later prove to be a lot better than the other well-hyped and supported ALA boxers like Boom Boom Bautista and AJ Banal. He won ALA Gym?s first and only world boxing championship title thus far and defended it four times before he relinquished the WBO miniflyweight title to fight for the junior flyweight diadem.
?We really need to support boxing. We have to help find the new Filipino boxing hero after Manny Pacquiao,? VP Binay said. He even surprised me when he said he had already ordered the construction of a boxing ring for Makati Coliseum to start the boxing program.
His son, Makati Mayor Junjun Binay, who was in Macau when I met with the Vice President, will spearhead the boxing program but he personally asked me to help stage big boxing events which would be shown for free for the people of Makati and Metro Manila.
How do you say ?No? to the second highest official of the Philippines?
Henceforth, the monthly ?Tomorrow?s Champions?, which we used to hold in the rural venues in Mindanao, will be held at the Makati Coliseum with the support of Vice President Binay, Mayor Junjun Binay and obviously the big corporations based in Makati.
So, while the details are being threshed out, the initial plan is to stage a big event in November of this year, right after the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez welterweight championship bout on November 12 in Las Vegas.
For the November event, I intend to feature the Philippines? top flyweight prospects against Mexican opponents and in the months to come display the top bantamweights, featherweights and lightweights.
In the undercard, upcoming boxers in the different weight categories will be featured in a tournament type competition with the winner receiving the Binay Cup at the end of the year.
I personally feel good about this project because this is what I have always dreamed of ? initiate a sustained effort to discover and develop boxing talents.
Boxers who will be given a break under this program will have Donnie Nietes to thank for inspiring Vice President Binay into supporting the search for ?Tomorrow?s Champions.?
And they also have to thank themselves for voting to the second highest office of the land one of their own, a poor boy to felt the pains of hunger and poverty and the dream to liberate one?s self from the chains of poverty.
