Pacmom Dionesia's birthday wishes

To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funnybone. — Reba McEntire

Today is the 62nd birthday of Dionesia Dagripan Pacquiao, formerly called “Aling Dionesia” (and often misspelled as “Dionisia” but now well known as “Mommy Dionesia”).

Recently, Steve Jobs’ Apple came out with their iPad2, then China’s Lenovo computer giant promptly rolled out their version called “LePad.” Our ex-President Erap Estrada reputedly loves alcohol, so should his tablet computer be called “Lapad?” In the case of Mommy Dionesia, it’s “Le Bag” because one of her two birthday wishes today is to receive a million-peso French-made Hermes Birkin handbag as a gift from her son Manny. 

What is the other wish of Mommy Dionesia, which this writer believes will not be granted soon? Her fervent wish is that her son Manny will quit the brutal sport of boxing while he’s still winning. Even with all the money, she wants Manny to retire now.

I sincerely believe that, in many things concerning life and even love, a mother usually knows best and we should listen. The only exception to retirement is if the world’s No. 2 best pound-for-pound boxer and still undefeated American boxer, Floyd Mayweather, finally agrees to step in the ring with Manny.

Congressman, your mother is correct and you should think about it. Not only is it pragmatic to retire now due to physical safety concerns, there’s a wise old saying: it’s good to quit while you’re still ahead and undefeated.

Look at President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, and now Muammar Gaddafi of Libya: they didn’t fade away from power while still ahead as did Singapore’s benevolent dictator Lee Kuan Yew or Britain’s “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher. 

A Knockout Supermom With Guts & True Grit

The other night as I was writing this column on my laptop, a tycoon called inviting me to late dinner and I apologized saying that I was busy writing about the most famous mother in the Philippines today. He asked, is it the late Cory Aquino? I said no. Is it Kris Aquino or Ruffa Gutierrez (who’s on the cover of the latest issue of Inside Showbiz magazine)? I answered it was neither. After I gave another clue by describing her as “the Philippines’ world-famous knockout mom,” the tycoon laughed and said: “Of course, Aling Dionesia!”

GMA News TV’s The Limelight show also interviewed me a few days ago on what I described as the phenomenal Pacmom, and I said I sincerely admire this seemingly ordinary woman with extraordinary guts and true grit.

We all know Dionesia’s life story is truly a Cinderella “rags-to-riches” saga, coming from the economic backwater of the Philippine south. However, not many people know that she had been abandoned by three most important men in her life — her father and her two husbands.

Yes, before Manny Pacquiao first learned to box as a teenager in the streets of Manila, Dionesia already had to slug it out in the arena of life for her family’s survival and against cruel odds.

The third of nine children in a poor family, Dionesia was still young when her dad left. It was her mother Cristina Mejia Dapigran who single-handedly raised the family. Dionesia said that she has learned much from her mom’s hard work, fortitude, perseverance and faith in God. 

As an adult, Dionesia was herself pregnant with her second child when her husband Alfonso Silvestre left her for another woman. Like not a few modern-day martyrs, she had waited in vain for four years for her husband to return, but he never did.

She later remarried the laborer Rosalio Pacquio, with whom she had four more children — Manny Pacquiao being the second eldest. This second husband abandoned her when Manny was still in sixth grade, the reason was — again — another woman.

Undefeated by seemingly cruel fate, Dionesia worked at a factory and later baked native delicacies for sale. Despite their poverty, she maintained a close-knit and religious family. Dionesia attributes her family’s survival and Manny’s victories to prayer power.

It is testimony to Mommy Dionesia’s solid upbringing that despite his global fame and billion-peso fortune in the brutal sport of professional boxing, Manny didn’t become like one of those egoistical wackos like the ear-biting former world heavyweight champ Mike Tyson. 

Like her son Manny, Mommy Dionesia is humble, irrepressibly humorous, optimistic, gutsy. They both prove that in this often cynical world, one doesn’t need to be corrupt — but just be disciplined, determined, and prayerful — to achieve our dreams of great success! 

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