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Smart, Pacman need a safe Olympic vessel
Written by staff   
Saturday, 24 January 2009 06:54

The best news to come out of our country’s desperate drive for a first Olympic gold medal is not the P12-million incentive dangled by tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan in this colorful capital on Thursday.

What beats that sweet stunner is the fact that MVP is not promising only financial support.

He’s also providing the infrastructure for that vital voyage.

Now, not a few local sports addicts are asking: Where in the world has Pangilinan been all these years.

“No, money is not a problem, we’ll give him everything he needs,” Pangilinan, subdued but firm in a simple white polo shirt, declared.

* * *

It was a glorious moment.

A loud boom, the sound of a cannon ball fired, was capped by a delirious shriek that followed MVP’s announcement of the P12-million Olympic incentive.

The happy hall erupted as though the target for Philippine sports had been hit the moment MVP announced the enormous amount.

In fact, Pangilinan, in the middle of the delirious ballroom ablaze with colored balloons, was shrugging off silvery confetti that rained on his head.

* * *

Then two-time world boxing champion Dodie Boy Peñalosa limped close to Pangilinan. The two shook hands and a deal was sealed.

“Price is not a problem, he will get everything he needs,” said Pato Gregorio, trusted Pangilinan lieutenant and newly minted secretary general of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines.

Together with Pangilinan as chair, his chief executive officer Ricky Vargas as president, they have officially taken over the leadership of the national amateur boxing association.

* * *

Gregorio assured that Dodie Boy Peñalosa Jr., the talented simonpure earlier tagged as Marvelous Pacquiao, will get everything his family requested and will join the national boxing pool.

Of course, another big news was the move by the amateur boxing assembly to request world boxing superhero Manny Pacquiao to help in the establishment of a national dairy industry.

Yes, Pacquiao could yet score the greatest victory of his life by helping subdue the foreign cartels that, through the years, have brutally shot down limp efforts for the Philippines to have its own dairy industry.

We’ll report the details of this proposal later.

* * *

Meanwhile, here’s the bad news.

Pangilinan, despite his boundless generosity, obviously had no idea about the monumental problems awaiting the revitalized quest for an Olympic gold medal.

Out there, in the two boxing rings inside the Bacolod multipurpose center, boiled a sordid demonstration by over-eager participants on how not to box in the Olympics.

Most, if not all, of the young fighters clawed and slammed blindly as though they were trying out as swimmers or baseball pitchers.

Yes, it was hopelessly primitive, with no hint whatsoever of pinpoint scoring, a technique strictly required in Olympic boxing.

Of course, action was thick with wild, yours-or-mine combat.

The competitors, as a whole, were like carpenters frantically working to finish an emergency job.

* * *

By now, both Gregorio and Vargas, who could only cringe through the sorry scenery during the national amateur boxing semifinals, must’ve told their big boss about the real problem.

Modesty aside, this reporter has been approached to serve in the board of advisers for the new Abap leadership.

OK, we have a deal, but only if Mr. Pangilinan agrees to dismantle the rotten, sure-loss infrastructure built by previous Abap leaders.

We must join hands to dismantle the wrong culture, uproot the foolish boxing philosophy built through years of ignorance and incompetence in the national amateur boxing backyard.

It won’t be easy, but we’ve got to build an entirely new vessel.

This is the only way Smart’s noble Olympic voyage could succeed.
 
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