Palaro for nat'l development

We dropped by eight-division boxing champion Manny Pacquiao’s training session at the Cooyeesan hotel in Baguio City last week before he left for Los Angeles Saturday evening and we were impressed with what we saw. We came in around three in the afternoon, as Pacquiao was into the second hour of his session that Monday and we could not help but notice the intensity written all over his and handlers faces.

Pacquiao worked atop the ring with trainer Freddie Roach and Boboy Fernandez outside the ropes and we could see that the emphasis of the training was on Pacquiao’s foot speed and side-to-side movement accentuated by a lot of bobbing and weaving. The hand speed and power were still there but it was clear that Pacquiao and company had studied Timothy Bradley’s fighting style and had the antidote for the brash challenger. Based on various reports, the American seemed to do a lot of talking over various boxing websites announcing to anyone who cared to listen that he would “hurt” Pacquiao and annihilate him.

I had seen Bradley in the undercard of the Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez III in Las Vegas in November 2011. He went up against former great Joel Casamayor of Cuba whom, we suspect, Bob Arum used to make Bradley look good as part of a plan to set up the latter for a future fight with Pacquiao. Well, Pacquiao survived Marquez in another cliffhanger and Bradley disposed Casamayor after several rounds. It was clear that Casamayor came to the MGM Garden just to pick up his paycheck despite a comical attempt during the weigh in the day before to hype up the fight by taunting Bradley who did not need much provocation to oblige the Cuban.

We had met Bradley a few days before the Casamayor fight at the media center. He did not appear physically imposing although he was in a business suit with tie. In fact, he definitely is an inch or two shorter than Pacquiao. He seemed accommodating however, as if he was inviting the media to interview him. I walked away from that brief conversation feeling that the guy, ever conscious of image and media, wanted to create a positive impression for himself, both inside and outside the ring.

At any rate, if Bradley hopes to pull off a huge upset, he will have to do more than just move in one direction – on a straight line. If he does just that, he’ll be easy pickings for Pacquiao who is precisely sharpening his foot movement and hand speed because Bradley is a mono directional fighter. The main cause for concern of Pacquiao’s corner is the tactic of Bradley of throwing hooks, followed by an elbow, and his head butts.

On another matter, the Palarong Pambansa opened in Pangasinan last Monday and this year’s edition comes at the heels of Department of Education (DepEd) Order No. 28, series of 2012 called “Guidelines on the Utilization of the P500,000 Allocation to the Secondary Schools Offering Special Program in Sports (SPS)”.

It would be interesting to find out the basic philosophy behind the SPS even if the SO spells out uses for the subsidy:  training of teachers and administrators on relevant topics in sports; procurement of instructional materials, sports supplies, and sports uniforms; student development activities such as trainings, workshops, participation in DepEd approved competitions including travel allowance of students during trainings/competitions and participation in the DepEd sponsored scholarships, professional upgrading of teachers including enrolment in master’s degree programs in sports.

By way of unsolicited advice, the Order could perhaps be amended to specifically respond to the recommendation of the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Task Force to use sports not for the creation of new sporting heroes but rather more broadly for health, education, social development and peace. And if the Order’s content, as amended, and its implementers have the proper frame of mind and training, this could pave the way for totally revamping the PE and sports programs of DepEd and the CHED so that the Palaro will be more a venue for complying with the MDG rather than primarily emphasizing competition and breaking records which makes it an integral part of the search for the Olympic gold medal.

Some have asked that for all their gold medals, what do Kenya, Ethiopia and Jamaica have to show with respect to the Philippines? We may not have the gold medals but these countries are no better than us in the areas of health, education, social development, peace promotion and respect for law and order because of those coveted gold medals.  

We need to undertake a fundamental paradigm shift in order for the country to develop the mind, spirit and body of our people, especially the youth, to achieve total human development.