Pacman’s enduring legacy: a moment of peace to all the world

 

Manny Pacquiao game charisma attracted the whole world for a moment of peace in their lifetime as they witness the Filipino slugger went off a blow-by-blow struggle against a worthy opponent, Joshua Clottey. The historic effort that was witnessed by the whole world will always be a moment of truth that would endure as a legacy; that one moment in time, there stood a man, who overcome his own weaknesses to pursue a worth-dying feat and momentarily achieved the most precious time that legendary politicians failed to offer---a time of peace in the whole world.

Pacman is now a legendary icon in boxing history, many believe, surpassing records of known boxing icons like Rocky Marciano, Flash Elorde, Michael Tyson, and Muhammad Ali, to name a few; but, his lifetime history is rare among them---winning world championship titles in seven boxing divisions. And it all started in a dream and tight self-discipline.

In the Philippines, Pacman has become a “National Icon of Peace” as many ordinary people noted. When news spread like best-selling hotcakes or pizzas, expect that people will surely take a hold of it no matter what. They are all excited to witness the extraordinary fight that the “Pambansang Kamao” has to achieve in his lifetime. Some boxing professionals and fans all alike have envied his achievement but they know that it his time to achieve such highest peak of boxing profession.

During the fight, I can feel the whole nation holds its breath like death. When they see Pacman being hit by his opponent no one ever wanted to go to the restroom, take a drink, or eat the burger long held, and instead cheered though they are inside the theater or inside a neighbor’s house, they just wont care about it. Eyes were all focused on the screen. Even inside the threaters, people is clasped with both joy and fear; every breath has never taken a halt.

The twelve-round fight against Clottey was full of excitement. When Pacman executed a double-punch on Clottey, everyone were all shouting “One more! One more!” then laughed. But when they saw that the referee gave Pacman a warning, they suddenly realized that the punch was not allowed. They were saddened a moment and went on looking at the TV screen. At the end of the fight, I hear a few grand oldies saying “Pacquiao wins! We are very sure that Pacquiao wins!”. Indeed it was! Pacman won by a unanimous decision. Some said, it was, because Clottey just refused to punch and preferred defending his own face.

As people went off the TV or theater, you can see their satisfied eyes. The hero, they said, is really great. They even acted the double-punch of Pacquiao when someone asked about it while walking or having sharing spree with some friends. And it turned the whole crowd laughing. And they shared all together that happy moments till the next day and on.

On the other hand, there was no great lull in business activity during the fight. Restaurants, fastfoods, carenderia and kitchenettes, and even sari-sari stores with TV screens are filled with boxing fans while the busy streets or main thoroughfares of highly urbanized cities and municipalities are orphaned with vehicles. You can see lines of parked vehicles all around.

Meanwhile, I heard that there was an internal holdover order from some AFP big bosses to belay military operations against rebels to give soldiers more time witnessing the Pacquiao fight. I believe the same was also observed among rebel camps. Thus, an undeclared truce was felt last May 14, 2010, the day Pacquiao’s fists ruled out chaos and fighting, and peace reign the world over.

Of course, I can imagine international boxing bettors and moneyed politicians went to Dallas, Texas a week before the scheduled fight, purposely to arrange “business as usual”. The bets were all in million dollars. International banks were all busy receiving cash deposits or money transfers. Security encrypted laptop computers in an aluminum-plated case were all issued by these international banks to facilitate easy transfer of cash. Each bettor has to deposit the amount of his bet in a bank, consequently, the bank will facilitate encryption of the financial data onto the bank computers reflecting special dollar deposit tagged with “betting purpose only”, and both bettors were to enter a password onto the laptop. At the end of the fight, the bank facilitator will bring in to both bettors the laptop to re-enter the password and just a few seconds, the payment is completed. Easy money transfer is now at the tip of the fingers; ingenuity of modern-day technology.

Now, we can see Pacman has generated a lot of business. And this business will go on and on until he retires from boxing. Pacman is the only boxer in the Philippines who is wise and prudent. Many of our first well-known boxers like Rolando Navarette, Luisito Espinosa, and many others achieved great boxing feats but in the end left empty-handied. And I believe that Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao will be the only boxer in the Philippines who’s build his own house out of a rag-tag dream. Indeed, he is the man!

Finally, I should like to say that we can build our own house too out of our rag-tag dream. And it shall come true when we look at Pacman even in a moment of peace.