Pacman retiring from wrong career

Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao’s planned retirement from boxing in 2016 so he could run for the Senate only shows that one can be a sports great though lacking in common sense. What will he do in the Senate? Could he meaningfully join deliberations done at that level? For clear answers, one needs only to go back to that so-called debate with Rep. Edcel Lagman where he made a fool of himself. Not only was he unable to say anything outside the scripted questions but on several occasions, he asked questions that were already answered during the previous day’s session.

I am all for the retirement of Manny—from politics, from high-level politics, that is. Not from boxing as yet anyway. He is out of his depths in the halls of Congress and would be a joke as a senator, vice president and president. If his provincemates want him to become their governor, that’s their risk, but the Senate and higher positions? He will be a monumental national embarrassment.

Don’t get me wrong. I am an ardent fan of Manny the boxer. I consider him a hero—in boxing. That is the reason I do not want him to heed the people who, to advance their own, self-serving agenda, are egging him on to run for the Senate, where I do not want our national pride and treasure reduced to a bumbling clown.

Despite my admiration for Manny as a sports icon, I recoil every time he opens his mouth as a congressman; how much more when he becomes a senator, vice president or president because then every time he speaks, he only would reveal his ignorance of his political job?

Manny should just serve the country in the field where he is best at—sports. No doubt he has talents aside from boxing, but the ability to legislate or govern a nation is not one of them. Doubtless there are boxers whose brawn match their brains and therefore have the potential for political positions but, unfortunately, Manny is not one of them. Maybe his former foe Marco Antonio Barrera, who they say is a law dropout and is planning on finishing his degree one day; and our very own Nonito Donaire whose articulation in English is flawless and who is obviously intellectually endowed.

On the other hand, a Manny Pacquiao among the senators of the republic is like a featherweight trying to campaign in the heavyweight division. Or like his brother Bobby fighting Floyd Mayweather. A massacre.

As far as I am concerned, Manny can serve the country much, much better if he boxes until it is no longer prudent to continue.

According to the news, his decision to retire further dims the chance of him and Floyd Mayweather clashing in that fight which the whole boxing world has been demanding for many years now. Thus will Manny be deprived of the opportunity to retire in a blaze of glory in the event he wins the bout.

Meaning also that history could pin on him the blame for the failure of “the bout for the ages” to take place, which would be a very bad legacy.

—ESTANISLAO ALBANO JR.,

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