Pacquiao – the reason for the season?

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Pacquiao – the reason for the season?
Sunday, 12 14, 2008

Until the next victory of Manny Pacquiao, it looks like the Philippines is not likely to experience peace for at least two fleeting hours while Manny commits violence inside the ring and pummels his opponent into submission.

It’s a funny thing, the Pacquiao phenomenon. We have seen how the sworn adversaries in the South and in the hinterlands of the Bondoc Peninsula mutually declared a ceasefire just to watch Manny pulverize Oscar de la Hoya to retirement. How, for two hours, desk sergeants in precincts all over the country were blissfully inactive because no entries had to be made on police blotters because no one was stealing from anybody, no one was raping anyone, no journalist was being assassinated and no innocent bystander was being killed in a crossfire. For two blessed hours we forgot to do violence on each other. Wasn’t it wonderful – the national fixation on Pacquiao?

But, alas and alack! The peace generated by the Pambansang Kamao vanished as soon as his hands were raised to signal victory. It was business as usual again – the soldier set his gunsight on the rebel and vice versa, the pervert started eyeing the neighbor’s comely daughter, the assassin lay in wait for the crusading broadcaster, and everything fell into the normal drift of things that our country is negatively known for throughout the world.

That cycle appears to be our weakness as a nation. In one brief, shining moment, our thoughts run along the same lines and we march to the beat of the same drum. At the next turn, we break ranks and each one looks after his own interests, never mind if it means trampling on the others and prostituting one’s principles. Ostensibly as one nation, we proclaim independence from a colonist, then “gain” independence from another, and later we bicker in disunity as separate ethnic groups. We unseat a president and teach the world the might of people power, and then later backslide to the old ways which, these days especially, are frightfully worse than those bad, old days because we have grown nonchalant about being collectively screwed as a nation by a collective group of individuals who have become careerist political prostitutes.

And then we wait for the next miracle to happen, when we can hail each other with the grace-filled greeting, “Peace be with you.”

This was the Peace heralded one cold night 2,000 years ago by the angels – Peace to men of goodwill and decency. It is not the calm that comes from the cessation of violence. It is not the peace that comes after one has slaughtered his enemies. Nor is it the peace that hangs over the grave of the assassinated activist, the innocent bystander caught in the crossfire of opposing forces, or the poor, hapless child who died of hunger and neglect. And definitely it is not the fleeting, nationwide peace provided by the entertaining spectacle of a brilliant boxer, whose achievement is now being trotted out as a balm for our aches and pains in these troubled times.

Tomorrow starts the holidays commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. We are known to have the longest Christmas season in the world. Expect a much longer season that could extend well over into the entire months of the coming year – with Pacquiao as the Man of the Month for every month of this extended season.

Already, there is the vain attempt to keep the miracle of Pacquiao in everyone’s consciousness, just so the burning issue of Charter Change (Cha-cha) can be relegated. Read all the broadsheets, watch the news on TV, or tune in to your favorite radio station, and you will see what I mean.

I am afraid that this season the miracle of Christmas will be proclaimed side by side with the miracle of Pacquiao, with politicians behind the glitter of the latter. Pacquiao is a sure crowd drawer, and every politician eyeing the derby in 2010 would be seen sticking to Pacquiao’s side with the tenacity of a limpet on a rock. And Christmas is every politician’s occasion to show how much he cares for his constituents and how much they can spare, no matter the source. Malacañang, for one, has become suddenly generous – just as Pacquiao is now to his kababayans in General Santos City – and has authorized the release of P10,000 for each public servant. This is well and good, but not enough. How about those in the private sector? And whatever happened to the promised support to those OFWs who have been laid off?

Pacquiao notwithstanding, it is a good thing that mammoth rally last Friday against Cha-cha was that – mammoth. And with the Senate resolution shooting down the Cha-cha and the preferred mode of the House of Representatives, there is no way that the proponents of Cha-cha could get a free ride beyond 2010. Speaker Nograles and his ilk should be able read well what the people want. Not even Pacquiao’s charm can make the people change their mind. Decency will win out in the end.

Sadly, in the spirit of the season, Joc-joc Bolante has been granted his wish to spend Christmas with his family, without waiting for Joc-joc to purge himself of contempt of the Senate. Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano has a point in railing against the premature release of Joc-joc. We can now expect Aytona, Paule, et al. to lie, be evasive in their answers, or simply not answer at all, get detained in comfortable quarters at the Senate, and get out as free persons three days later. What an opportunity missed by the Senate.

Starting tomorrow, we shall be witnessing the exodus to the provinces. And we shall have less of the vitriol that is our daily staple. We can only pray for better times, and enjoy the blessings – and surprises – of the season as they come.



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