President
Rodrigo R. Duterte is expected to be at ringside as Senator Manny Pacquiao slugs
it out against the Argentine WBA welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse at
Axiata Arena in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia on Sunday, July 15, 2018. As far as I
could remember, this will be the first time a sitting Philippine president will
sit among the crowd and see his fellow Filipino fight in a foreign land.
The
SenaPac (pretty odd but this is what I call Pacman since he became senator) is
aiming for his 9th title in this bout dubbed “Fight of Champions”.
As of press time, both Pacquiao and Mathysse already arrived in the land of Prime
Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Though President Duterte’s presence in KL is a “private”
visit, there is a scheduled meeting between Duterte and Mahathir after the boxing
match if we are going to believe Harry Roque, the president’s main mouthpiece.
Pacquiao
as a boxer should learn a lesson or two from Mahathir in some ways and Duterte from the
fall of the former Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Who
are Mahathir Mohamad and Najib Razak, by the way? Mahathir, Malaysia’s
longest-serving prime minister for 22 years, who defected to the opposition to
take on former Prime Minister Najib Razak’s party, again voted to power a
couple of months ago. Mahathir’s political alliance Pakatan Harapan (Alliance
of Hope) won at least 112 of 222 parliamentary seats in May polls that made a
pivotal shift for Malaysia as a nation.
Like
Mahathir’s winning moves, Pacquiao has to show that he still knows how to
unleash solid blows and be dominant in the ring. Like how Mahathir swept
traditional government strongholds of Johor, Kedah and Negeri Sembilan and
neutralized Najib’s advantage in the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak. In
such a win, Mahathir showed that age doesn’t matter. Mahathir is 92 and
Pacquaio is 39. In this brawl in Malaysia, Pacquiao must be, as alleged by
Najib on Mahathir during the campaigns, “obsessive about control, calling the
shots.” And that is the only way to win against Mathysse and grab the belt.
Like Mahathir, Pacquiao has to show the world that he is not done yet as a
pugilist. Like Mahathir, Pacquiao need to be the time-tested and thinking dictator
in the ring.
Not
unlike Duterte, Najib met increased public anger over so many issues. In the
case of Najib, according to reports, it’s the goods-and-services tax that
boosted prices and a money laundering scandal involving hundreds of millions of
dollars siphoned from state investment firm 1MDB that nailed his coffin. Mahathir
called Najib, his protégé-turned-rival, a “thief” during the campaign.
Duterte
on the other hand fell short in delivering his nation not only from the perils
of criminality and drugs but from economic chaos and large-scale trampling of
human rights. His government is expected to look or focus more on the economic
condition of the people and the fiscal health of the country rather than
pushing an allegedly red carpet to totalitarian rule disguised as
“Federalism”.
Surely,
the Filipino people will temporarily forget about the P500% in the Office of
the President’s expenses for 2017 for the cost of the ASEAN Summit, financial
assistance to soldiers, maintenance of presidential choppers and billions of
intelligence funds. Why the maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) of
the Office of the President zoomed up to P14.9 billion in 2017, up 534.24
percent, according to COA annual audit report. The bulk of funds, or P8.19
billion, went to “other MOOEs” allotted to expenses such as advertising,
printing and publication, representation, transportation and delivery,
rent/lease, membership dues and contributions to organizations. The dangers of
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas or BSP’s expectation that inflation will settle in
at 4.6% this year, above its 4% upper target. This means we can expect
inflation to further increase till the third quarter of 2018 before it
subsides, among other issues involving the national coffer including that
dreaded TRAIN Law and the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Asian
Development Bank (ADB) covering an indicative 7.1 billion US dollars sovereign
lending program to the Philippines from 2019 to 2021. Not to mention other evident
issues of the day such as spate of killings of elected officials, our inaction
to Chinese military build-up in West Philippine Sea and Duterte’s “stupid God” remark
which Pacquiao downplayed by saying “we all have different beliefs.” Lately, though he didn’t had a chance of selfie
with the Almighty, Duterte finally apologized (to God) for calling God “stupid.”
As
expected, come Sunday, Filipinos will once more cheer and rally behind the
Pambansang Kamao together with Duterte including those in the human rights
movements and the Catholic Church even if they are Duterte’s favorite punching bags of late!
Momentarily,
we will be forgetting the hardships and the ills around us as a nation
especially when the president himself is there to witness our boxing legend’s
ring greatness, whether it’s his swansong or not. Along with other celebrities
from all over the world, from the entertainment and the boxing circle itself,
Duterte, controversial as he is, would certainly add drama to the fight or color
to the bout’s media coverage.
Win
or lose, Senator Pacquiao, and this time with President Duterte, will in a
while send this impoverished country to La-La Land, a speculative state of mind
mainly characterized by blissful lack of touch with reality….
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(Postscript: Pacquiao won via 7th round TKO)
References:
Photo: ABS-CBN News
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