SECRETARY MANNY PI?OL VISITS SOUTHERN LEYTE
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 14 Jul 2016
Department of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Manny Pi?ol visited Southern Leyte at Sogod town Thursday and had a dialogue with farmers, provincial and municipal officials led by Gov. Damian Mercado, and municipal agricultural officers.
Pi?ol, a former newspaper sports editor, TV boxing analyst and later boxing promoter, was among those who persuaded and supported then Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte to aim for the presidency and the rest is history.
We had a short talk about the loss of Prince Albert Pagara, who used Maasin City in Southern Leyte as his address, in his WBO intercontinental title fight with Cesar "Corazon" Juarez in San Mateo, California last weekend.
"Practically every boxer has experienced defeat and he shpuld learn from that loss," said the affable sportsman Secretary Pi?ol. "The most important thing is he is very young and still he has all the chances to fulfill his dream of a world title."
The agriculture czar presented his laudable plans like the resurgence of abaca affected by diseases, improvement in irrigation systems, increase in rice and crops production, among others which he discussed with his ethusiastic audience. The most applauded statement of Sec. Pi?ol was his drive to eradicate corruption in the agency.
The owner of Braveheart Boxing Club in Kidapawan, Cotabato, Pi?ol has managed such boxers as IBO world junior bantamweight champion Edrin "The Sting" Dapudong and WBO Oriental miniflyweight champion Rommel "Little Assassin" Asenjo. He spearheaded the revival of the popular boxing show on TV now called Blow by Blow Reloaded together with Senator Manny Pacquiao.
Pi?ol was first elected as public servant in 1995 when he ran for mayor as a substitute to his father, former Cotabato provincial board member Bernardo Pi?ol Sr., in M'lang, Cotabato. In 1998, he was elected as Cotabato provincial governor, and held it for three consecutive terms.
As governor, he had acomplished prominent agriculture programs including the Malitubog?Maradugao irrigation and bottom-up planning for the province's rubber, oil palm, banana and coconut industries.
Having served three consecutive terms as governor, Pi?ol ran as Vice Governor of Cotabato and won with his former vice governor Jesus Sacdalan being elected the new governor. His legacy include reducing the province's poverty incidence from 41.6% in 2000 to 25.6% in 2009.
Photo shows selfie of the writer with Secretary Manny Pi?ol.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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