june 12, what’s to celebrate?

patong patong ang talo.  first, panatag.  then jessica.  then corona.  then pacquiao.

i know i know, many of you will say, “then corona” does not belong.  the corona conviction was a win, not a loss.  yes, a win for the prez and his cohorts and supporters, but is it a win for the long-term?  will the precedents that have been set prove to be of benefit to the nation?  we don’t know that yet.  all i know is, the system of checks-and-balances has been undone.  now we wait and see what the president will do with unchecked unbalanced power.  it better be good.

but to get back to the string of losses, pacquiao’s in particular.  on anc’s teleradyo right now, ronnie nathanielz, karen davila, and vic de leon lima are practically beatifying manny, declaring him a saint, for the way he took the loss — such humility, such class, such submission to god’s will daw. sey pa ni davila, manny is “the living testimony of god’s faith.”  susmaryosep.  later, in a headstart replay, nathanielz said, manny was “presidential” in the way he accepted defeat.  god, no, please. let us not be carried away.

it is so pinoy, this kind of response to loss, defeat, calamity.  first we very quickly find someone else to blame, such as the judges, the mafia, sinister forces.  then we turn to religion and politics for consolation and distraction.  good job.

i saw the first half of the fight — from the national anthems to round 7 yata yon — and i wasn’t optimistic for pacquiao.  parang it was too close a fight.  and bradley was so much broader and more heavily muscled, and younger.  no problem, if this had been in manny’s younger days, too, but manny 2012 is not as light and fast as he used to be, and not as strong.  to my brother it looked like pacquiao couldn’t have taken bradley down, even if he wanted to.  hindi na niya kayang magpatumba.  yes he should have won this one, but not really by much.

one day i hope we can get past the in-denial and alalay-kay-pacquaio mood into a more honest and constructive what-happened-to-pacquiao mode.  para we know better, next time.

anong nangyari kay manny?  is this par for the course?  is pacquiao at 33 past his boxing peak? what if manny had not been distracted by showbiz, politics,  and religion?  what if he had focused on boxing, training, and, on the side, setting up training centers for would-be winners like him? might he have been still in shape to knock out, knock down, the younger bradley?

i wonder whose advise pacquiao has been listening to all these years as he lurched instead from showbiz to politics to religion to anti-RH to bible-reading and preaching.  whoever you guys are, shame on you.  what a disservice to pacquiao and nation.

and, finally, on this 12th of june, a word about jessica sanchez, the filipino-mexican-american who almost won american idol, to our great pride and joy, and who sang the u.s. national anthem in the pacquiao-bradley match.  i actually bothered to get up earlier than usual just so i could catch her live on on pay tv (at my cousin’s next door).

it was weird.  i thought it was kind of twisted that we were more kilig by her rendition of the star-spangled banner than by the unknown pinay’s rendition of lupang hinirang.

and when manny lost, and jessica tweeted: congrats to the new winner but i’m still really upset about the results :( natawa na lang ako.  lukso ng dugo?  maybe she should have declined the gig na lang, but how was she to know he would lose, how could she have foreseen what it would feel like.  well, now she knows.

ang mas nakakatawa, many pinoys, including conrado de quiros, actually thought jessica would be singing lupang hinirang.  i had no such akala.  she’s american, ano ba.