Philippine Sports News and Updates

After Manny Pacquiao signed up with Shelly Finkel and a new management team prior to his first fight with Mexican legend Erik “El Terrible” Morales at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on March 19, 2005, he appeared to be happy because lawyers Nick Kahn and Keith Davidson together with Finkel were attending to the nitty-gritty and taking a load off him and allowing him to concentrate on what he does best—fighting.

After he filed a case against promoter Murad Muhammad and reached an out-of-court settlement, which freed Pacquiao from his contractual obligations for two more fights under Murad, the original members of Team Pacquiao headed by business manager Rod Nazario who had nurtured his career since he was a 16-year-old kid on the weekly boxing show “Blow by Blow,” drifted away. There was no acrimony, just a touch of disappointment.

Things soon changed. From the small $80 room at the Vagabond Inn near the Wild Card Gym of Freddie Roach in which he stayed along with faithful childhood friend and trainer Buboy Fernandez and the original Team Pacquiao members Moy Lainez, Lito Mondejar and Gerry Garcia, Pacquiao moved to more affluent surroundings. He purchased a Lincoln Navigator and was soon surrounded by a bunch of Los Angeles-based Filipinos who later on began to be known, in somewhat derisive tones, as the “LA Boys.”

Until the Morales fight when they began to surface in ever increasing numbers, they didn’t know Manny and he didn’t know them. But with his growing popularity they began to swarm around him, praising his every move and virtually fawning on him and in the process living off him.

They went everywhere he went. Often about 10 to 15 of them and wherever they ate or drank Manny picked up the tab. He had hit it big and had come a long way from the poor boy from General Santos City. And the LA Boys were there for the ride.

When he drove to Las Vegas for his first fight of an epic trilogy with Morales, the new centurions began to emerge. They followed Pacquiao in a convoy, many of them riding rented Hummers and other fancy transports, all reportedly at Pacquiao’s expense. He dispensed choice tickets to a coterie of politicians eager to bask in the reflection of Pacquiao’s limelight as though money was of no concern, even paying for the airfares and hotel bills of quite a few friends and hometown folk. It was a reflection of his genuine kindness.

Among the LA Boys was Joe Ramos, a tall young man with some style who was said to have a banking background. He established himself as Pacquiao’s so-called chief of staff and because of his position secured a special power of attorney from Pacquiao. Ramos appeared to get on well with Finkel’s team.

There were others who gravitated to Pacquiao and he, always known as a generous and kind-hearted individual who had the uncanny inability to say “No” looked after them financially even as they began to win his confidence. That was to eventually cost him a tidy sum.

The first big caper was when Ramos, who was apparently the holder of a joint account with Pacquiao, withdrew a total that was variously estimated at between $150,000 to over $200,000 from the bank account where Manny’s income tax refund from the United States Internal Revenue Service had been deposited.

When Pacquiao discovered the anomaly, Ramos was kicked out and disappeared for a while, only to resurface some months later. It began with Pacquiao, known for his forgiving ways, giving Ramos tickets to watch his April 14, 2007 fight with Jorge Solis in Texas. Then, obviously unashamed over what he had done, Ramos wiggled his way into the ring at the end of the rematch with Marco Antonio Barrera in Las Vegas on Oct. 6, 2007 and positioned himself strategically behind Manny so he would be seen on television. The sight of Ramos amazed some and angered many who couldn’t understand what Pacquiao was doing.

After a comparative quiet period, all hell broke lose on Thursday last week after Viva Sports/Standard Today broke the story about the latest caper pulled off by an LA Boy—Joseph Jose and his girl who turned out to be his wife, Pia Quijada.

It began when Michael Koncz, who is clearly promoter Bob Arum’s eyes and ears in Pacquiao’s inner circle, received a phone call from Wilma Rodriguez, vice president of the Wells Fargo Bank Sunset Boulevard branch inquiring from Koncz whether Pacquiao remembered that he had an account with the bank. When Koncz checked with Pacquiao he had apparently forgotten.

Pacquiao opened the account in December 2006 and deposited $200,000. He was driven to the bank by Joseph who was accompanied by Pia, allegedly his second wife. Pacquiao, for some inexplicable reason, gave the bank the Los Angeles address of Joseph and Pia which meant that the checks and other bank communications were forwarded to that address.

Soon Pia Quijada was withdrawing money from Pacquiao’s account by forging his signature. In the beginning they were comparatively small amounts of $300 or $400. Soon they increased to $1,000 to $4,000 with a total amount of between $11,000 and $12,000 a month on the average. Quijada also transferred some $40,000 from the Sunset Boulevard branch to a new account in Burbank.

Among the payments were those made to cover the insurance for a grey Toyota Camry with leather interior for which a downpayment of some $15,700 was made. It turns out the couple acted as the brokers when Pacquiao bought a 10-bedroom apartment complex in Los Angeles and made some money from their role in the transaction.

When Pacquiao went to the bank he discovered there was only $19,000 left in his account. He was visibly upset and it ruined his training schedule that afternoon. He shadowboxed for six rounds and left. He then drove to the Los Angeles Police Department on Venice Street and LaBrea. By a welcome streak of luck—for us at least—the officer manning the desk was former Philippine Basketball Association import Francois “The Hulk” Wise who played in the Philippines and who remembered us for our Vintage Sports coverage of the PBA games on television.

In an overseas telephone conversation, Wise said another officer was assigned to “do all the investigation and see what they come up with.”

The investigation was bound to take a little while although Wise said he would ask his colleagues to speed it up. He laid down the basic procedure in which the detective assigned to the case will consult with the one who made the report before doing anything. “They would talk to the person who made the report first. They will go over it, read it just to make sure that nothing was left out.”

Pacquiao decided to take some advice and changed his signature. He went to the Department of Motor Vehicles with Greg Asuncion, Aljoe Jaro and physical therapist Jeff de Guzman to change his signature on his California State I.D. and his Driver’s License.

Jinkee, who talks to Manny daily, confirmed that her husband had “already changed the bank where he deposits his money and also changed his signature” in order to prevent a repetition of the fraud.

The latest reports from our insider friends in LA who enabled us to break the front page story ahead of our colleagues is that the LAPD investigation is still going on and that Pia Quijada has apparently gone into hiding although her husband continues to show up and claim he knew nothing about what his wife was up to. Pacquiao tends to believe him. But Jinkee doesn’t believe that Joseph knew nothing about what his wife was up to. In fact she is convinced that once Pia starts talking to investigators, she may well implicate others in the fraud.

Jinkee has made it clear to her husband that she wants Pia and anyone else involved in the fraud to go to jail. She may well get her wish because even if Manny, in his customary fashion wishes to forgive the thieves, it will soon be out of his hands.

That’s because the bank plans to refund the money that was stolen and then go after the perpetrators.

In an overseas telephone conversation with us on Friday morning, promoter Bob Arum who has done a remarkable job promoting the career of Pacquiao, told us “the bank is making good because it was a forgery and as far as Manny is concerned, $200,000 fell out of the heavens.” This may well explain his column, which came out in philboxing.com, stating that this was a “personal problem” and that people should respect his privacy even as he stated that “while it’s hard for others to forgive, I can easily forgive.”

This attitude hasn’t sat well with the public because to condone one swindle after another sends the wrong message. Arum revealed that “everyday somebody else is calling me to give Manny an advance because of a real estate deal” raising even more concerns about the people that surround him.

Arum said Jinkee was perfectly right in wanting to weed out the undesirables after he completes his “Unfinished Business” with Marquez. It seems to many that the “Unfinished Business” is within Manny’s circle.

Any attempt at a coverup is doomed to fail, according to an official of the Philippine Consulate, because the police are right now cracking down on such offenses. Wise himself told us that the LAPD was “so busy because there’s so much crime going on with forgeries and identity theft.”

We also learned that Jose’s father called Pacquiao after the photos of his son and Pia were splashed across the front page of Filipino newspapers in California along with the story, inquiring whether the reports regarding his daughter-in-law were true. Pacquiao said “yes.”

On Valentine’s Day in the Philippines, Pacquiao and his wife Jinkee, who has been a tower of strength and a firm hand, greeted each other with words of endearment. She told him once again to stay focused on his fight with Marquez while she handles the problems even as she maintained that she would “get upset with Manny” if he forgives anybody because “we have been so good to them.”

After going through his WBC-mandated medical and weight tests on Thursday which necessitated him having to skip his workout, Pacquiao played darts in the evening. A friend of Joseph and Pia, identified only as Mark who sold Pacquiao the Los Angeles apartment, paid him a visit.

In his regular column, which was allegedly penned by someone else, Pacquiao not only appeared to be ready to forgive, there was even an attempt to hide behind the fact that this entire episode was a private affair. It’s not. Because the moment Pacquiao went to the LAPD and reported what happened, it became a public issue.

Wise suggested that Pacquiao should “get himself a good team and weed some of these people out.” Jinkee plans something better. After the March 15 Marquez fight, she suggested to Pacquiao that they sit down and decide to clean up house and get rid of most of the so-called LA Boys.

One text message that Pacquiao received set the tone and pointedly told him—“kung si Joe Ramos nga na mas malaki pa ang ninakaw sa iyo, pinatawad mo. Maawa ka naman sa amin kuya. [If Joe Ramos stole a much bigger amount and you forgave him, feel sorry for us elder brother.]” This is the reason Jinkee Pacquiao wants the guilty to go to jail. Otherwise, the LA Boys—and girls—will continue to swindle Manny, preying on his kindness and his propensity to forgive and let the crooks go free.