MANNY Pacquiao can be a fair game. Criticize him for being overly concerned with the pursuit of wealth and that could be partly correct, after all, he stands to earn some $10 million in his fight with Oscar de la Hoya on Sunday. That’s a lot of cash even if his life could be endangered in the process in clashing with a heavier and taller foe.

In the Sun.Star and Superbalita newsroom, I am probably the only one who is for Pacquiao this time. Dodong Morallo, Super B’s night owl, commented that I must have arrived at that stand because Pacquiao is Filipino. That is partly true. I therefore won’t bet against de la Hoya. The possibility of my losing my hard-earned money if I do so is big.

I am no Pacquiao fanatic, if one likens fanaticism to the way I once admired Muhammad Ali. Blame that on age, which has a way of tempering emotionalism. But it has occurred to me lately that in his own way this once poor boy from General Santos City has brought the Filipino to new heights of international recognition.

We Filipinos are a proud race, no question about that. Thus, we grab at every morsel of achievement in the world stage and display it around like it was the only thing that matters. Cory Aquino in the cover of Time magazine. Lea Salonga in Miss Saigon. Paeng Nepomuceno in the Guinness Book of World Records. The list goes on and on.

Last night, I surfed the internet and ended up viewing video files of HBO’s 24/7, a series intended to hype the Paquiao-de la Hoya match-up. How many people followed 24/7 worldwide, hardcore boxing fans and not? Then I realized that the one thing I as a young boxing enthusiast never thought would happen has happened.

Who would have thought that a Filipino would be recognized by the world as boxing’s pound-for-pound best? I used to watch Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson and the young Roy Jones Jr. and never did it cross my mind that a Filipino would be able to walk the corridor these big leaguers roamed in. Until Manny Pacquiao came along.

Pacquiao-de la Hoya, in this sense, takes a new meaning for a fight fan like me. I agree about the money thing, but only partly. Sunday is not only Pacquiao’s biggest payday. It is more so his---and the Filipino people’s---introduction to an audience bigger than what our other achievers, except perhaps for Cory and the Edsa 1 throng, had drawn.

This may not sound that important for us in the Philippines who are tied to the act of making both ends meet. But for Filipinos abroad who work in ocean-going ships, in the deserts, in hospitals or everywhere, Pacquiao’s achievement is a source of pride. I am not surprised then that Pinoys often go to the Wild Card Gym just to see “the man” train.

No matter what the outcome of this Sunday’s fight will be, Pacquiao is already a winner many times over. The fight has opened new doors for him, and with it more fame and, of course, riches. Still, I will be rooting for a win not only because Pacquiao is a Filipino but also because he is an exceptional fighter and athlete battling an opponent past his prime.

There’s no denying that this country, especially in politics, is in need of tales that would inspire us and rebuild our self-esteem. That of Manny Pacquiao is one such story.

(khanwens@yahoo.com/ my blog: cebuano.wordpress.com)

For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here.

(December 3, 2008 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.