A BOXER AND A COUNTRY AT THE CROSSROADS
By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 19 Nov 2013
It is an all too familiar scenario. Manny Pacquiao goes into a battle against the backdrop of his country reeling from natural or man-made disasters. This time, the conditions are much more difficult.
It has been almost a year since he was knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez, his first stoppage loss since 1999 when a weight drained Pacquiao lost his WBC flyweight title to Medgoen (3-K Battery) Singsurat. The December 8 debacle was also Pacquiao?s first legitimate loss since 2005 when he was outpointed by Erik Morales.
Pacquiao?s inactivity has given fans and boxing pundits enough time to analyze his defeat and speculate about his future. Retirement may be the furthest from his mind but does he possess the necessary ?amnesia? needed to bounce back from a loss? The truly great athletes immediately forget about a defeat and move on to the next contest. Can he still take the physical pounding after a long and eventful eighteen year career?
These are the lingering questions that Pacquiao will answer come fight time against Brandon Rios in Macau.
Pacquiao will be 35 years old this December. He has captured
world titles in eight divisions but he cannot fight forever.
The Filipino people will continue to cheer for him despite the cloud of doom which has loomed over the Philippines for the past few months. The weary masses will certainly need another dose of anesthetic from the boxing icon.
Two months ago, Zamboanga City was the site of an almost three week armed conflict between government soldiers and a faction of the Moro National Liberation Front. This resulted in thousands of displaced civilians and hundreds of deaths from both sides.
This was followed a more tragic series of events started by the intensity 7.2 earthquake that struck Bohol which affected the neighboring islands and less than a month later by the November supertyphoon Yolanda (Haiyan), whose destructive force hammered the Visayan islands and the hardest hit were Leyte and Samar. The city of Tacloban has become the tragic focal point of suffering.
In the middle of all this, the rest of the country had to endure watching on television a mind-numbing Senate hearing on corruption and misuse of pork barrel funds.
I realize that this is not the time to point fingers. But Filipinos should take these back to back calamities as an opportunity for introspection and to scrutinize the people in charge.
REAL LEADERS LEAD and DO NOT ACT LIKE VICTIMS.
Who among our government officials acted like a real leader - before, during and after the typhoon?
Our country is visited by strong storms every year. If only the hundreds of millions of pesos plundered by corrupt government officials was utilized to improve our infrastructure and train and equip our disaster relief personnel, countless lives would have been saved though the years. This is also something that Filipino voters should think about. Every person who sold his vote or did not vote wisely has blood on his hands.
There may be a bigger problem awaiting the survivors in Leyte. The unburied rotting corpses and lack of proper sanitation make for a deadly brew for bacterial growth which will eventually cause diarrhea and other diseases. People on the ground have to work double time to prevent an epidemic form happening.
A sporting victory can give us a temporary euphoria but it should never be a substitute for responsible and honest government. It is very ironic that politicians have time and time again used Pacquiao?s victory to distract voters from the real issues.
In the midst of all the misery we hear about small acts of kindness from ordinary Filipinos. This serves as a flickering candle of hope for our race.
Calamities and unprecedented tragedies bring out the best and worst in all of us. It is time for the average Filipino to look at himself in the mirror and to look at the people running our country at the local and national level and ask ourselves ? Are these the same people I want to win during the next election? Are these the same people who will be in charge when the next typhoon or earthquake hits?
The children of Leyte and Samar deserve better. The Filipino people deserve better.
Photo of Manny Pacquiao in Gen.Santos City courtesy of Wendell Rupert Alinea
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Rene Bonsubre, Jr..
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