Manny’s extravagance unbecoming a public official

I second retired Commission on Audit commissioner Bartolome Fernandez’s observation about Manny Pacquiao’s extravagant lifestyle (“Pacquiao, public officer, not leading modest life,” Opinion, 4/28/15). Were he a private citizen, that would be nobody’s business. But, our laws direct that public officers lead modest lives.

In the raging Pacmania, reportage is hardly made that he supposedly owes the Bureau of Internal Revenue P3.9 billion!—leading the alleged tax evaders’ list by a mile. (Bobby Ongpin is No. 4 with P420 million; Rene Corona is No. 7 with P120.5 million.) Role model? This Great Pretender as congressman and PBA player?

And pastors of his Christian sect will sing our national anthem on May 2 in his latest foray into McGeehan’s “Manly Art of Modified Murder.” A Filipino boxer just killed his Australian foe last month Down Under. A Christian sect endorsing a “sport” whose intent is to harm, maim, knock out and even, willy-nilly, kill a fellow human being, for money?

But I applaud Manny Pacquiao’s appeal for clemency for Mary Jane Veloso.

—R.A.V. SAGUISAG, Saguisag & Associates Lawyers, Palanan, Makati City