Jose Rizal's Rival

Manny Pacquiao won by split decision against Juan Manuel Marquez yesterday in Las Vegas vying for the WBC 130-pound title.

No, I didn't watch. The moment my dad opened the television and tuned into the fight, I went in my room and slept until 6 in the evening. I don't get boxing: two men in gloves hitting each other trying to know who can knock the other first. If I wanted to watch boys trying to kill each other, I'd just go to any school and watch the fraternities throw molotov cocktails at each other.

But anyway, Manny's victory was on the news early in the morning along with the ZTE-NBN witness Jun Lozada moaning on television saying how his life is so miserable and how his wife is having counseling (Well then, the next time you decide to snitch on the government, predict and deal with the consequences. You don't honestly believe you can do that and live normally, do you? I don't condone corruption but please, if you decide to reveal what you know, don't whine when the government gives you a hard time. Honestly, I don't know how he's managed to still be alive. If this happened in other countries, he'd be dead by now. It's either the powers that be are trying to take on the humanitarian point of view and decided they can battle it out with him or they're just slow on the uptake.) so I couldn't really help but hear what happened.

There's something I'm confused about though. Manny Pacquiao is being dubbed as a "Bagong Bayani", why? What did he do? Did he save the nation from corrupting influences? Did he open the eyes of the masses to the corruption of the government? Did he write an emotionally and intellectually moving novel in order to fight colonials? President Arroyo says in light of this confusing time, Manny Pacquiao had managed to unite the people of our country. You mean it only takes a boxing match to unite the nation?

Maybe we should abolish the government and build boxing rings in place of court rooms; let the complainants and defendants box each other and the winner will get what he wants and Manny Pacquiao can be the referee. There would be monuments, his face will be engraved in paper money reminding us of the brilliance of his idea, the courage it took for him to go out there and fight those foreigners so he could get millions of pesos, oh wait, that's not it, so he could get uh... peace in our country... with boxing! Manny Pacquiao can be the new Jose Rizal, Jose Rizal with boxing gloves.