ROMEO Y. LIM
‘It will take more than a sucker punch or a left hook to drive away the problems that face our country today.’
I WAS quite surprised at the number of Manny Pacquiao-for- President messages that proliferated in my inbox these past few days.
Momentarily, I dismissed the messages as a fluke/joke but there were serious comments, a number of them even quite passionate including a few hysterical ones.
I was taken aback at the reasoning of some of these so-called Manny-for-President fanatics. One says that "if a wino, a crook and convicted plunderer was able to garner 9+million votes in the last presidential elections, why not Pacquiao who is the best boxer pound-for-pound in the world, is still lily-white as a politician--a Congressman for his district in Sarangani--and already has a solid reputation as the "Champion of the Poor?"
Another, perhaps referring to Pacman’s propensity to help the less fortunate, says that "comes 2016 not Manny Pacquiao for prospective highest elective office in the Homeland because of his money spent for the poor, but only for his heart longings for our country." I guess he means that Pacquaio loves his country (unless someone else has a better interpretation).
Of course, there were the more sober ones who contend that the Manny for President bandwagon is too early. I tend to agree since Manny won’t reach the qualifying age for the presidency this 2016. However, his loyal fans have him in sight for the 2016 senatorial fight wherein he will be just ripe for the 2022 presidential race.
One Pacquiao fan observes that Manny will just be a puppet that will be used by the clergy and the political hierarchy he supports. The same fan however, bewails the fact that Manny is not intellectually qualified.
Ay sus Gino-o! Like most Filipinos I know, Manny Pacquiao is an icon alright – but, he is a boxing icon. If, by any chance (without meaning to demean or denigrate him) he becomes presidential timber, it is not because he spends money for the less fortunate.
It must be because he is able to have the political, economic, moral and psychological savvy to rule a country of almost 100 million people whose psyche is ruled by 300 years of the Spanish convent, 50+ years of American Hollywood with a mish-mash of Southeast Asian including European and now, Japanese and Korean influences. I am not even including the influence of our OFWs who seem to integrate the personalities of the people they work for abroad.
An array of lawyers, a soldier, an economist, a decades-serving mayor, an economist and now a pedigree of democracy icons have done their part to fix this country, all with varying degrees of success or failure. Look at the country now.
Yes, he has vastly improved his verbal and intellectual skills but it does not make him presidential timber overnight. It will take more than a sucker punch or a left hook to drive away the problems that face our country today.
I’m sorry to say but much as I admire Manny Pacquiao not only as a boxer but as a person, he just won’t make it as a president of the Philippines – not in the near future.
I vote to give him more time, and experience. Perhaps then, he could actually surprise us all.
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