Congressman Manny Pacquiao 2010

By Bingo P. Dejaresco

Don't look now - but that appears to be the Pacman's game plan.

By May 2010 (election time), Manny Pacquiao , the world's best boxer today and WBC lightweight champion shall have fought (welterweight) boxing legend Oscar de la Hoya (December 6, 2008) and two others in 2009. That year 2009 - Pacman will announce his retirement from the bloody sport of boxing. By then he will have earned about P3 billion in just nine years of fighting.

Rumors have it - the Pacman who has been studying (textbooks, on the side) will run for Congressman of Saranggani in May 2010 - after failing in his first bid against politically-entrenched Darlene of the Custodio and Antonino clans of the First District of Cotabato in 2004.

This time, no Filipino can begrudge the Pacman's other ambition. After all, even today he has brought superlative honors for the country for winning 4 world titles and being adjudged today the best "pound for pound" fighter even by experts.

After retirement, Pacman will no longer be bothered about serving two masters: boxing career and his Saranggani constituency. Now, let us allow Congressman Manny Pacquiao this one chance to serve his country in another way.

At age 31, that is just right time to quit this strenuous sport - without having permanent injuries like Muhammad Ali's Parkinson's Disease today. He will also have his P3 billion as retirement kitty more than enough for even for three more generations of Pacquiao family - if he invests wisely and does not indulge in dangerous distractions like big-time gambling or financing criminality.

Besides Mommy Dionisia who just prays than watch TV fights of Pacman and other relatives want the favorite Cotabato son to retire in one piece. Wife Jinky (who will watch the De la Joya fight) will be pleased to have his man (at least) safe for the rest of their lives. And their sons - who Pacman will not allow to go boxing - will have enough stories to tell to forever idolize their super boxer-father.

In 2007, a psychic had predicted Pacquiao will be beaten in the year 2008 - long before talk of a Pacman-De la Hoya fight was even planted in anyone's imagination. This could be Pacquiao's Waterloo - even odds-makers believe he is the underdog – simply because De La Hoya (a natural welterweight at 147 pounds) is too big for Pacquiao (lightweight at 135 pounds).

In boxing, as in basketball, they always say that the Good Big Man will beat the Good, Small Man. Or will the unpredictable Pacman surprise everyone with a monumental upset in the Dec. 6 Las Vegas Nevada fight?

If Pacman loses, he can go back and fight the remaining best fighters in his weight class - and walk away into retirement - undefeated in the blaze of glory. If Pacman, wins - he can have his last two fights into a momentous scenario that will defy repetition at any time - give Oscar de la Hoya a rematch and egg Floyd Mayweather (the retired former best fighter) to move out of retirement and engage a classic winner-take-all do-or-die ring showdown that will break all existing box-office records.

In the second scenario, Pacquiao can go P5 billion richer . Imagine. Oscar de la Hoya, the brilliant boxer-promoter is revved up to fight the Philippine sensation for three reasons:  he wants to fight only the best boxers, Freddie Roach (Pacman's coach) insulted him saying "at his age of 35, Oscar can no longer pull the trigger" and to avenge the defeats of the immortal Mexican boxers (Marquez, Morales, Barrera, Diaz) by the Gensan Bomber.

If De la Hoya fights "at the center of the ring" that he promised, then the Pacman has a chance to unload his bazookas at close range; if he sticks his jab and occasionally engage Manny toe-to-toe, Oscar could get away with a decision. For a knockout, it can go either way.

Hat doffed, we commend Pacman for mapping his life strategy this way. Unlike poor former Filipino world champions like Luisito Espinosa and Rolando Navarette who are destitute after hanging their gloves. Our Bohol boxers like Rey Boom Bautista (congratulations, by the way) and AJ Bazooka Banal should take the cue from the Cotabato brawler in career and financial planning.

From June 2001 to June 2008 Pacman has amassed P1 billion from ring purse and another P500 million in product endorsements: Nike, SMC, Smart, Alaxan, PAL, among others. That excludes the TV broadcast of his fights locally. He has it made, by all standards.

His fight with De la Hoya in December 6 will just be his much awaited "date with history."

And with all the honor and pride he had given this nation - even we Boholanos would want to go to Saranggani - and vote him Congressman in 2010. Let's watch him put his purse where his mouth is.

Take a bow, the Honorable Congressman from Saranggani!