INDEED, despite all his pronouncements and claims, Manny Pacquiao has never fought for flag and country. And his latest fight yesterday was no different from the rest. As always it was just for the money, this time to finance his political ambition.
Really, it did not matter if he won or lost. He’s already guaranteed millions in purse money just by stepping into that boxing ring. So I didn’t bother checking it up.
Unless you have some ulterior motive, particularly pecuniary, you have to be an idiot if you vote for him as president.
Speaking of the Olympics and representing the country, this is the closest Manny Pacquiao got to that:
In 2016 Manny Pacquiao was asked to represent the Philippines for the Rio Olympics but declined saying he wanted to concentrate on being a senator yet he had two professional fights also in 2016. Of course, he earned millions if not billions in those fights as compared to the measly incentives given by the government to national athletes. The much vaunted patriotism of the self proclaimed “pambansang kamao “ flew out the window in favor of Louis Vuitton and Hermès, or perhaps Manny was afraid he might lose to a true Olympian fighting for flag and country. By the way he was the top absentee in Senate that year.
But you can always take comfort that Manny Pacquiao was the flag-bearer of the Philippines delegation to the 2008 Beijing Olympics and that was his moment as an almost but not quite Olympian.
Well…well, it seems the “Political Science” degree from the University of Makati of self-proclaimed “pambansang kamao” Manny Pacquiao was conferred without the knowledge and authority of the Commission on Higher Education – National Capital Region (CHED NCR).
According to its regional director Dr. Virginia Akiate, this seriously affects the credibility of the country’s tertiary education system and this bloke wants to be president.
Meanwhile, those who had premature ejaculation over the Commission on Audit’s (COA) Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) on the Department of Health (DOH) show their complete ignorance of the government’s procurement process and desperation for an issue to fit their narrative.
“It’s getting curiouser and curiouser.” COA has a field day seemingly in wanton abandon releasing reports with unconfirmed irregularities of government agencies to the media (desperate for issues) bearing in mind that the presidential elections are less than a year away.
Take note that all issues (pandemic included) thrown against President Duterte failed; he’s still popular as ever. My journalist’s instinct sees an ulterior motive…perhaps an orchestrated demolition job.
Is it a mere coincidence that current Commission on Audit chairperson Michael Aguinaldo was appointed by then president Noynoy Aquino and also served as his presidential lawyer?
And is it also another coincidence that the media got hold of this AOM reports before the agency concerned did and on an election year?
Take note that what COA did was raise a cloud of suspicion that something was remiss but at the end of the day that will really amount to nothing as all the questions were merely procedural which can be rectified with proper documents.
By law, all COA can do is call the attention of government agencies with irregularities in the liquidation of their expenses for them to justify properly, not to go to media with their reports that are at best inconclusive.
The timing and coincidence is indeed uncanny. It has all the makings of a desperate effort to besmirch the Duterte government. All it took was a biased media to twist the COA’s AOM which for all intents and purposes still very much inconclusive they started with the DOH, the perfect target since we’re in the middle of a pandemic and one by one AOMs of government agencies make the headlines with malicious stories. Don’t forget the sudden appearance of 1Sambayan conveyor Heidi Mendoza and the classic necropolitics prop a corpse.
The plot thickens… 1Sambayan’s Heidi Mendoza tried to make a martyr of Jake Cimafranca, lead auditor of the DOH AOM report, claiming he died of heart attack due to stress. The thing is he died on Aug. 4 and the COA AOM on DOH came out two weeks after and was subject to President Duterte’s comments. Please, the man died before his report came out, so stop using his corpse for your political agenda.
And we segue to the other stuff…
Those who are against vaccination does not believe COVID-19 is real but just a conspiracy and that the earth is flat. I sincerely hope you won’t get infected, be seriously ill and hospitalized, or worse, die or fall off the edge…
Scratch an anti- vaxxer and you’ll see an ulterior motive, almost always pecuniary in nature except for those fools and idiots trying to be trendy and who also believe in Noynoy Aquino and that the earth is flat.
Those who refused to be vaccinated and are campaigning against vaccination and saying COVID-19 is not real should not go to a hospital. If ever they get infected and be seriously ill with the virus, they should stand up for their beliefs and die for it.
It’s the unvaccinated that is making COVID-19 win. The vaccines will not make you COVID-19 proof but it will prevent you from being seriously hospitalized or die and from infecting others.
Finally, just because you’re offended does not mean you’re right. It just means you are a snowflake. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com)/PN
