The Pacman won… but he’d better shape up for the next

No use writing about anything portentous or significant. Yesterday, the nation’s eyes were focused almost exclusively on the Manny Pacquiao – Oscar Larios Mano-a-Mano, and today’s front pages will be full of it – and the triumph of our national sports hero. What if Chololo Larios had decked the Pacman? No way.

Even La Presidenta Gloria almost stealthily slipped back into the country for a quiet arrival – perhaps wisely deciding not to compete with Manny P., the icon and super-slugger. Or was GMA off her feed? We’ll find out today.

As for our champ Manny, let me say something rash, certain to bring collective wrath down on my head. Sure, he won – I wish I could say almost "in a walk." He knocked down Larios in the seventh and twelfth. It was a convincing victory. Mabuhay ..and all that!

But lurking underneath all the noisy jubilation and ululations of Pinoy Pride must have been a bit of disappointment and… well, uneasiness. (Nobody dares voice it, I’m afraid, for such sacrilegious thoughts are deemed unpatriotic). Yet Manny looked like he wasn’t giving it his all – when he could have kayoed Larios, somehow he seemed unable to follow up. Undertrained? Not fully fit? I won’t essay any pronouncements since I’m no expert, but I’ve been an aficionado since the days of Flash Elorde. Yesterday, the killer instinct seen so distinctly in Las Vegas didn’t seem to be there. The boring in, the powerful flurry of fists, the gladiator cutting his foe to shreds.

Let’s face it. Chololo Larios, a tough Mex in his prime, was already somewhat over the hill, but he sustained Pacman’s punches with stolidity and managed to… well, stun him twice, the first time in the second round. Not enough to floor him, but to stagger Manny, to the latter’s surprise. Larios defended himself from Manny, a southpaw, with a quick left jab followed by a straight right. If he had possessed the force, he could have deep-sixed our idol.

The problem of an adored champion of the flying fists is that he becomes a celebrity – loved and cozened by all, pursued by… eh, you know, a romantic motion picture made about him starring Jericho Rosales with Bea Alonzo as his wife. In sum, the super-hero who advertises everything from beer to whatever, the superstar of a radio-TV network. It’s the same old story, as the song goes in Casablanca – and, of course, those Rocky motion picture epics. Every pugilist with a champion’s belt (not necessarily a blonde or redhead on each arm and a golden Porsche) is tempted to forget the lean and hungry days.

Pacquiao slugged Larios to the canvas, but yesterday, for all the adulation we’re showering on him, must be for him as well as all of us, his admirers, a painful wake-up call. When he goes up against a real champion next (hopefully his flatterers won’t tempt him to upgrade his weight class), he’d better be the lean, mean – crushingly powerful – machine of old.

He’s 27 now, and himself says he hopes to retire in his thirties. There’s still dynamite in his fists, but the next challenge must find him in superb condition – all those glorious nights and days behind him. Girded for combat. That’s all I will say. If it makes me sound like a sourpuss amidst our hip-hip-hooray rejoicing, so be it. I’m sure Manny P. realizes himself that he stood in no danger from poor Chololo, who fought his best but was already outclassed – but the next guy could prove a different experience.

There are some gorillas out there – including the usual Mexicans – who’d like to eat Manny P alive and spit him out into enchillada de molé. Manny must relentlessly train to make hamburger of them instead. Yesterday was patty-cake.

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The important position of Chief Presidential Legal Counsel which was vacated last December by now Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez has remained vacant up to now. I understand Solicitor General Eduardo Nachura who is saddled with many OSG cases sometimes has to serve as a pinch-hitting de facto Presidential Legal Counsel.

It is high time President GMA now designates a defendable Presidential Legal Counsel she trusts who is familiar with Constitutional and Political Law. With several vital legal issues now cropping up which expectedly will reach the Supreme Court, the urgency for GMA to get herself a highly competent and trusted Presidential Legal Counsel is pressing.

However, a good presidential legal counsel must not be a "rubber stamp" or one inclined to give legal opinions just to please the Boss Lady by tailoring opinions to GMA’s liking fearful of incurring her ire.

If GMA only had a good legal team in the Palace whose opinions she gave weight to, perhaps the 1017, 464 and CPR cases in the Supreme Court might have had a different outcome, instead of being knocked down by the Tribunal.

For instance, Proclamation 1017 even had a line lifted entirely from the Marcos declaration of Martial Law which may have turned off some members of the Supreme Court.

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The May 2007 elections are ten months away. Commission on Elections sources say preparations for a national poll require not less than 6 to 8 months.

Time is running out on the government to prepare for credible polls only ten months from now. People are asking if the same crew of flawed and corrupt officials will oversee the 2007 national and local polls.

A big question!

With the issues related to the conduct of the 2004 presidential polls refusing to die, it would be disastrous for the senatorial and local polls in May next year to be conducted by the same group that conducted the 2004 polls. Appointing two or three new Commissioners to deodorize the present poll body may not work to restore public confidence in the discredited poll body. Is what Malacañang intends to do with certain Comelec officials somehow linked to the Office of the Ombudsman’s questionable resolution in the Mega Pacific automated counting machines scam? It looks disastrously like – well, a whitewash.

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THE ROVING EYE . . . A great journalist, and a very fine man (which is much more important) has just passed away. Larry Sipin, who spent his first years as a columnist for the Philippine STAR, but was later lured off, to my regret, to write for other newspapers died the other day, and I personally mourn him not just as a loss to our profession but as a friend. His pungent wit as a commentator punctured many egos, exposed evil, made his readers chuckle: I know he’s up there, telling jokes to God Almighty. God bless you, Larry – and Godspeed, old friend!… One of the top contenders (okay, guess no longer) for the post of PNP Chief was the head of PACER and anti-kidnapping. Yet, here are the statistics which don’t lie: There were 19 KFR (Kidnapping for Ransom) from April 2005 to October 2005. These kidnapping (KFR) incidents, alas, escalated from November 2005 to May 2006 when that Police Director General was in command. We hope he’ll do better. If our police can’t smash the kidnap syndicates, then we’re in a state of violent anarchy and our land can only be declared unsafe.