HANGTIME
Neil Bravo
I don’t know what the
BIR official in Manny Pacquiao’s region has in mind when he picked to destroy
his best hope for tax revenues.
If he’s a poker player,
he just threw away his best card. It’s like trading away Kobe Bryant for a pair
of future draft picks. He just spat, shoved, shoo away the man who probably
gave his career a footnote in the agency’s annual accomplishment reports.
For a time, Manny
Pacquiao was named among the best, if not the best given his stature vis a vis
big name businessmen, taxpayers of the country.
Manny is not a minted
businessman. He earns his money by taking punches, by getting beat up, or in
his case, by evading getting beat up. He earns by training for weeks away from
his family hitting the mitts and sparring against bigger foes in a sweaty gym,
and running in the hills of LA. He earns by starving himself early in his
career in order to meet the weight. He earns by punishing himself, getting
whipped with sticks, and all other strategies just to make his body as solid as
rock. He earns by getting sliced and stitched in the operating table after a
fight. Draining clots and nursing bruises.
Definitely, Mannys is
not having the time of his life in a California kingbed when he trains. As the
retired heavyweight great Leon Spinks says it aptly, training for a
championship fight means eating bolts, nuts and razorblades.
For that, people pay
Manny millions of dollars to go up the ring and beat up against the best in the
world. Most of the time against men much bigger and taller than him.
For that, people pay a
good sum of money to watch him fight on pay-per-view TV. His fights earn from
800,000 to 1.2 million dollars each time.
For that, Nike pays him
millions of dollars to get him to wear their shoes and apparel. Nike knows.
For that, consumer
brands pay millions of pesos to get their logos stitched or printed in his
boxing shorts. That shorts transforms to a Php 5-million advertising billboard.
For that, San Miguel
Beer and Ginebra pay him millions to be their drinking buddy.
For that, Head and
Shoulders pamper his Justin Bieber hair.
For that, TV networks
fight to get him to their stable.
For that, filmmakers
made him a movie actor.
For that, President
Barrack Obama wanted to have a photo with him.
For that, Kobe Bryant
would take a break from playing to shake his hands.
For that, Sylvester
Stallone would come to see him train in the gym like the real-life Rocky.
For that, Paris Hilton
would like to do business with him.
For that, the people of
Sarangani made him Congressman.
For that, some people
think he would be good as Senator.
For that, many people
want him to run as President.
Wait. Run for
President?
For all the many good
reasons, this could be where it all started. Where people start thinking Manny
could well be our President, that’s where the beating starts. How else could
you beat Manny even with your best shot?
Maybe a lifetime not.
You got to hit him
where he’s soft. Some people are too brilliant to know Manny’s soft spot. Not
his rock-solid abs. Not his steely jaw.
There are only two
things certain in this world that man fear.
Death. And taxes.
