Winner takes shoal?

There will be a total of two Filipinos who will be in the ring when the Pacquiao-Bradley fight takes place in Las Vegas tomorrow (Sunday in the Philippines). Manny Pacquiao is pure Filipino, while Jessica Sanchez if half Pinoy, and, I think the same is true with the 14-year-old girl chosen by Manny to sing the Philippine National Anthem, Kirby Asunto, of New Jersey, U.S.A.

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One could get nervous listening to the hype from the Bradley camp and from Bradley himself, who apparently thinks very highly of himself. He claims that he is ready to shock the world in this fight, and that this is his moment, etcetera, etcetera. Does he really mean it, or is he just whistling in the dark? We do not belittle him, but another braggart, who was also so sure of himself he had thousands of his countrymen, cheerleaders, and even a band come to Las Vegas for his victory party, named Ricky Hatton, was the one who took a nap on the canvass two rounds into the fight with Pacquiao.

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As for Manny, he is his usual low profile self, giving humble and simple statements to the media, and never once bragging that he was sure to win this fight. His stock reply to those who ask has always been “Depende ‘yan sa Panginoon (That depends on God)”. By the way, for once he has his entire family with him in Las Vegas, I mean, his “reformatted” wife, Jinkee, and their four kids. But where is Mommy Dionisia? She hasn’t been mentioned in the reports nor has her photo appeared in the news media. Maybe she is afraid she will faint again and end up in a hospital like the one time she went to see the fight.

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Meanwhile, politics has gotten into sports, as it is doing in the scheduled basketball game between a Philippine team and the one from China led by former NBA giant Yao Ming. All of a sudden, the Shanghai Sharks, as the team is called, informed the Manila team that they are not coming this month as scheduled for the seemingly flimsy reason that they could not secure their passports on time. Would you believe? Maybe they are afraid our players will challenge them to play at the Scarborough Shoal?

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That was really interesting, because it would seem that the country’s sports organizations also have to toe the government line. I am sure many Filipino fans would have loved to see Yao Ming, the seven-footer from China who injected so much power to the NBA’s Rockets, until he got injured and could no longer play. Now he owns this team with some partners. Maybe it is best this way – suppose the Chinese government allowed them to come and play with the condition that “Winner takes the shoal”?

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As for our other celebrity sports team, the popular Azkals, it looks as if they are very good at “drawing”, and have shown this in their last two encounters with foreign teams. Last week they played against Malaysia, and ended with a draw. The other day they played against Indonesia and again, it was a draw. Well, at least that shows our football kids are on a level with those more seasoned groups. Or maybe they did not try hard enough since that kind of game is called a “friendly”.

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Win one, lose one. That might be the situation for former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whose charges for bribery and corruption were dismissed by the Ombudsman recently. But, with the dropping of the case, also came one, this time against her husband, former first gentleman Mike Arroyo who is being charged for allegedly selling his used helicopter to the military, with the collusion of some officers. As for GMA, I understand the Ombudsman has lots of other charges in her locker, ready to be dug out anytime. But I’m sure she has a lot of crack lawyers working on them and it will be a long time, granting that that neck does not bother her again, before those are resolved.

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Nestor Padalhin, nominee for ambassador to Syria (ugh!), is one lucky fellow. At the initial vetting of nominees by the Committee on Appointments, it was found out that he had not included a house in Washington in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth. He explained that he did not think he should, because it was not yet fully paid, the amortization will take 10 years more. He was just asked to amend his SALN and the other day his appointment was approved! He was indeed, very, very lucky – he had a very sympathetic Sen. Miriam Santiago on his side. She was quoted as saying that their policy was “leniency”. Did anybody check her temperature?*

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