“Manny Pacquiao: Fighting Pride” features over a hundred interviews and references, and will be released in June 2012 by MPD Press. The book will be available exclusively on Amazon.com and Kindle. Marv Dumon is the author of Enter The Real World.
Excerpts – Aling Dionesia struggled to raise her children in a one-room shack beneath wooden boards. She was too poor to install rusty roofs for its five occupants ? metallic tin sheets that prevented most (not all) of the rainwater from seeping in during tropical storms. It also transformed the enclosed dwelling into an intense oven during any humid day.[1] Advertisement
It?s the early 1980?s.
Labangal is one of 26 barangays in General Santos City, located on the southernmost tip of Mindanao Island. Nestled in the southern Philippines, ?GenSan? proclaims itself as the ?tuna capital? of the archipelago and its more than 7,100 islands. However, the city and its surrounding provinces are considered by the government as one of the poorest in the nation ? having long been ignored by Ferdinand Marcos and the dictator?s administration.
Thus, a lack of economic development fostered an underground movement which grew increasingly brazen after American soldiers left during World War II. New People?s Army (NPA) rebels and Muslim secessionists lurk in every corner of Mindanao, receiving funds from terrorized locals by way of ?involuntary taxation?, and ? allegedly ? from cash and weapons contributions by rogue states and their regimes.
Kidnappings and beheadings are regular occurrences. As such, the U.S. State Department officially recognizes them as terrorist organizations. On isolated highways, army and police checkpoints, brandishing anti-infantry tanks, serve as but scattered outposts that only marginally reduce the threat of armed assault.
In guerilla warfare, the enemy is everywhere and nowhere. Disguised in civilian garments, he resembles everyone and no one.
. . .
In GenSan, Aling Dionesia and her children lived adjacent to a basketball court surrounded by nipa huts; shakable, modest structures composed of cut bamboo sticks. A small, makeshift boxing stage was plopped next to the court, and elementary school was a few blocks away.
Buboy Fernandez lived in a boxed dwelling next to the Pacquiaos: ?Both of our houses were really close. They were next door to each other. The window on our house was also their window . . . (and) we grew up together.?.[2]
Lacking basic necessities such as running water or proper sewage, the Pacquiaos, like many locals, hauled in heavy buckets of water along rock-studded, dirt roads. Dionesia and her children – which included Manny, his brothers, and sister – trudged winding, often shrubbery, passages in the mountains.[3] The jungles of Mindanao echo with the chirps of bird and exotic wildlife.
. . .
By day, Aling Dionesia earned some cash by cleaning other people?s houses and by washing clothes. To supplement her labors, she peddled roasted peanuts and tuba (coconut wine).[4] On many days, however, Dionesia’s income wasn?t enough and nanay (mom) would weep inside her improvised sari-sari store.[5]
The single mother and her children often went to sleep without dinner. ?Most days, we would have one meal; and often that consisted only of rice and nothing else,? said Manny. The siblings would plead their nanay: ?Ma, we?re really hungry,? and she would reply, ?What can I do? We don?t have any food.?
Aling Dionesia enforced Spartan discipline, often threatening to hit her frightened children. There was no room for whining, tomfoolery, or weakness.[6]
. . .
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* Media and boxing affiliates may request inclusion of reviews and/or propose foreword, epilogue, or similar contributing statements until May 20, 2012.
