One disaster after another

Different types of disasters were discussed at last Monday’s Kapihan sa Manila at the Diamond Hotel by 10 panelists. They were Akbayan’s Risa Hontiveros, a senatorial candidate of the Liberal Party in the 2013 elections, who talked about the disaster that befell then Chief Justice Renato Corona (she was one of the complainants in the impeachment case); Neri Amparo, a consultant of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, who talked about the typhoon and flood disasters coming our way every rainy season; Dr. Jimmy Montoya, director of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development; and Dr. Nuna Almanzor, director of the Industrial Technology Development Institute (Itdi) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), who talked about the disaster of dengue and what is being done to combat it.

Then there was the biggest disaster of all to most Filipinos: the defeat of Manny Pacquiao in his bout with Timothy Bradley. To discuss that, there was a whole army of analysts from the Philippine Sports Commission or PSC (Director Ricardo Garcia) and the Games and Amusements Board or GAB (Chair Ramon Guanzon, Commissioner Fritz Gaston, boxing judge and referee Danrex Tapdasan, and boxing judge Greg Ortega).

Risa said she felt sad for Corona for his ouster from the Supreme Court but added that he brought it on himself by violating the Constitution and the law. She expressed the hope that the best man would be chosen in the current scramble for the chief justice’s seat.

The best news was brought by the two doctor-scientists, Montoya and Almanzor. They revealed a simple and ridiculously cheap way to combat dengue—a contraption developed by the Itdi and designed, not as a cure  for the ailment itself, but to prevent dengue-carrying mosquitoes from multiplying.

The contraption is a mosquito trap consisting of a tumbler or can half-filled with water, a piece of wood with holes in it, and pellets made out of pepper and other herbal ingredients. The pellets are dissolved in the tumbler, the piece of wood is laid inside, and the tumbler is left out in the open. The mosquitoes are lured into laying their eggs in the holes in the piece of wood. The eggs fall into the water and that’s the end of them. If some of them manage to hatch, the larvae swim in the water with the dissolved pellets and are killed. No more mosquitoes.

The pellets and sticks can be bought for a pittance from drug stores, sari-sari stores, health centers or the DOST. Of course, every household has a discarded tumbler or empty can to use. The Itdi is distributing the contraptions for sale as fast as it can manufacture them.

On the coming disasters in the form of typhoons, floods and landslides, consultant Amparo said the government was doing everything to warn residents of incoming weather disturbances and to help those affected. But the people should help themselves by moving away from high-risk areas, she said.

These high-risk areas are low-lying areas beside waterways, on the seashore, at the foot of mountains, hills and cliffs. Rushing water in the waterways, big waves, and landslides from the hills and mountains pose very big risks. People should move away from these areas. Don’t wait until the storm has actually arrived. Leave while there is plenty of time.

As for the biggest disaster of them all—Pacquiao’s unexpected defeat—the boxing experts said the fight was so close that either Pacquiao or Bradley could have been declared the winner. According to boxing judge and referee Tapdasan, it is very hard to judge a close fight. Judging a boxing bout is very subjective, he also said. You judge the fighters on points under different rules, and it is how the judge interprets these rules that determines whether a fighter wins or loses.

Boxing judge Ortega said his group, the Association of Philippine Professional Boxing Ring Officials, is now in the process of revising local boxing rules to prevent controversies in boxing bouts.

PSC’s Garcia and GAB’s Guanzon said they are now reviewing the fight to determine if the decision was unfair. They also said the investigation by the World Boxing Organization won’t change the verdict. Even if it finds the decision-making faulty, it won’t take the championship from Bradley and return it to Pacquiao because it is not the fault of Bradley but of the judges.

Somebody mentioned the influence of gambling syndicates. Everybody knows that boxing is a dirty sport and that it is controlled by gambling syndicates, and even by the Mafia, especially in Las Vegas. Boxing bouts are sometimes fixed, not through the boxers themselves but through the judges and referees. Tens of millions of dollars can be won or lost in just one bout. The boxer actually cannot be sure who his friends are. His closest friends—even his own coach and manager—may have placed bets on the other fighter if the odds are too high in his favor. If the odds are five-to-one in his favor, for example, a $5 bet for him wins only $1, while a $1 bet for his opponent wins $5. That explains why some of your friends will place bets on your rival and have the bout fixed through the referee and judges.

I am not saying the Pacquiao-Bradley fight was indeed fixed by gambling syndicates, but that is a high probability.

Some of the boxing experts grudgingly agreed that Pacquiao may be over the hill. That happens to all champions, one of them said, including the greatest of them all, such as Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, and Sugar Ray Leonard. You grow older while younger opponents crop up to challenge you. It is like the gunfighter in the Old West. Somebody faster always shows up.