THIS is not Las Vegas and your credit card is not at stake. But let’s try to place a bet on Manny Pacquiao.
No, not against Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera or that beinte-por-beinte boxing “boy wonder” Edwin Valero.
It should be Manny Pacquiao, 28, against himself.
Or, to put it more urgently: Pacquiao vs the Philippines.
Can Pacquiao be an effective agent for the sought-after character change?
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Let’s make a little gamble.
Try to determine Pacquiao’s immense impact and influence on the entire Filipino masa.
Wanna bet? Majority of Pinoys would stop, look and listen if Pacquiao, one of these days, used the pulpit and told poor, lost countrymen they should start behaving properly like law-abiding citizens.
Look, the Church has made the initial call for national character reformation.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wisely moved away from the line of fire by wholeheartedly agreeing with what the Church had to prescribe for the Filipino soul.
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Of course, the twin moves were flashed on the front pages, played up in practically all media outlets, including the tested marketplace gossip mills.
Sorry, but yesterday, the situation— the screaming scramble out in our chaotic streets—was worse than last week’s.
People, at least the mad-mad majority, have obviously lost the sense of what’s right and what’s wrong.
It was, blindly and selfishly, to-each-his-own.
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The truth is that, Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, Archbishop of Manila, had to be rushed back to the hospital after straining himself in stressing the urgent need for national reformation out there at the Luneta on Sunday.
Anyway, our dear Cardinal need not be told that his call has again fallen on plugged ears.
Mrs. Arroyo, meanwhile, went her sweet, old way and feted Filipino medalists in the Doha Asian Games, sending across the message everything was fine in her protesting, badly battered republic.
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Now, this is not to say that the boxer Manny Pacquiao has become more important than the Church.
No. But, at this perilous point, the national boxing hero could, indeed, provide the great difference.
Pacquiao, pardon this, could be a lot more relevant and useful than Malaca?ang and all the useless ordinances put together in reforming wild Filipino ways and restoring order in our streets, in the national life as a whole.
Wow! Your reporter would surely be hit for having allowed himself to be carried away.
Please, hold it. We’ve actually made random surveys, out there in the streets, among the lost and the embattled daily wage-earners.
The reply: Why not? Pacquiao could yet help open eyes to order, selflessness and better, healthy habits.
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Themselves speaking, the more concerned citizens suggested that Pacquiao could be made to do endorsements.
You know, just like what he has succeeded in doing for myriad of products—from fried chicken to patis, everything—Pacquiao should be able to sell proper ways of behavior to the citizenry.
This could, repeat, sound wild and stupid to certain sectors.
But with practically everything falling into pieces out there in countless lawless streets and side alleys, there should be no harm trying.
“That’s a step in the right direction. We can’t go wrong with Manny Pacquiao. Count me in, please,” said law-yer-sportsman Rudy Salud, founding sec-gen of the World Boxing Council.
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Who knows? The first step to national reformation could be just around the corner, right under your nose.
It could be as simple as taking a couple of steps to use the garbage can—again.
Of course, the call is for our leaders, mainly pro-administration lawmakers that had again proven to be a collective disaster, to honestly do their assigned duties, with no fear or favor.
Pacquiao had said it. He was happy enough in having made Filipinos happy and united even for just a day (“Masaya na ko, mapaligaya ko sila kahit sandali man lamang”).
Didn’t Pacman show the world the Filipino was worth dying for when he agreed to fight Erik Morales on a night he was gravely ill last month?
If he could make them buy acid-based vinegar, as though this were real and authentic, there’s no way Pacquiao could not work the spell and guide lost citizens back to right, heroics ways.
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