Unbelievable

Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao did something outrageous today (Jan. 20). He went to the Commission on Election office--I don’t know how he hoped to accomplish this—“to bring back the people’s trust to the commission.” He went there with all the pomp, the shouting, the autograph signing, the blah, blah, blah, and, and, and is that supposed to bring the people’s trust back to one of the most corrupt and unreliable government agencies? Who does Manny Pacquaio think he is? Jesus Christ (sorry about that)? Mahatma Gandhi? Martin Luther King? Mother Theresa? Albert Einstein? The guy is a boxing champion; he is a respected boxer, a shrewd businessman even, but a moral force in the country? All those adulations and head punches may have caused some malfunction in his brain and gave him hallucinations and delusions and illusions of messianic grandeur. (One of my friends told me that most Filipino boxing champions are (mildly) crossed eyed, and he’s right. Must be brain damage due to punishment the head is exposed to or it could be the egoism and egotism.)

If Manny the Pacquaio went to his old, rundown and legendary old gym to donate some equipment and money, it’s understandable.

If Manny the Pacquaio went to an orphanage and donated money and his endorsement for donations, it’s admirable.

If Manny the Pacquiao went to the Comelec and punched the commissioners on the head to knock some sanity in them, that would be understandable and admirable.

But the Manny who after his hospitalization immediately went to the cockpit to watch his fighting cocks fight. Manny who lose thousands of dollars in games of blackjack, going to the Comelec to bring back the people’s trust to the despicable institution? Unbelievable. Why can’t he be like Efren “the Magician” Bata Reyes the humble Filipino billiard legend—toothless and low profile.

Pacquiao has all the right in the world to do what he did, but what he did shows the sad state of the nation…I don’t want to elaborate. I mean if knocking people down can give a person the moral power to revive trust to a despicable institution …unbelievable.

Our kind of heroes tells so much as to what kind of people we are becoming.