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Pacquiao’s bout

Let the Filipino people rejoice and share in Manny Pacquiao’s victory. Only a jaded citizen would not be moved by this outpouring of pride and infectious joy. It is so rare that the people feel a collective respite from the daily grind and despair of the national crisis. The state of the country’s affairs is not lost on the pugilist’s consciousness as he feels, somehow responsible for this very transient manifestation of national unity.

However, the reality of wielding unity necessitates a more complex formula. The nation is at the brink of total political polarization and economic bankruptcy, a disintegration that has deep roots in social restiveness and moral decline. A national leadership that has been under siege for so long is sitting on a boiling cauldron of a people’s revolution and movement for fundamental change. And the longer the government led by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo clings to power, the louder the clamor for change rings throughout the land.

Thus Manny Pacquio’s noble quest for unity may just be a quixotic bout. This national malaise cannot be knocked out with one swift, technical and decisive punch. No amount of trophies and laurels that modern day heroes like Pacquiao bring home can so easily erase the wounds this nation is inflicted with. Ironically, victories such as Pacquiao’s are used by the government as ruse to divert the people from the crisis. Acting like patrons and sponsors of goodwill, these leaders’ grandstanding leave a bad taste in the mouth. It makes people wish they could deliver that swift, technical, decisive punch to the perpetrators of this national crisis to end the people’s miseries.

Sorry Manny. Unless your president vacates her seat in Malacañang and her ilk follow suit, your wish for national unity may just remain as such. In the meantime, we just go on sparring. #

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