ALTHOUGH MANNY Pacquiao won in his WBO Welterweight bout versus Jessie Vargas, looks like his glory days are quite over. During his real heydays, clubhouses in various villages near our place would put up their own giant screens and charge people who want to watch his fights live. Those days are gone.
Even in mall theaters, they’ve already decreased the price of their tickets by one half and still, only a few takers. The match on pay per view TV is also no longer that profitable. Pinoys used to be so enthusiastic and excited then when he had a fight, but not anymore. Now that Pacquiao is a senator, maybe people are more interested in what he’ll do as a legislator, considering that he had a lackluster performance as a congressman when he was absent all the time.
The audience gave a warmer reception to Gen. Bato de la Rosa who was there to watch the fight, showing how much people approve of what he and the Duterte administration are doing against crime. Some folks might frown on what they think is EJK but when we talk to taxi drivers, fish vendors and other C&D&E people, they approve of Duterte’s swift kind of justice like what happened to the two mayors who are said to be narcopoliticians/ drug lords.“Kung idaraan sa korte, mahaba pa, magkakalagayan pa, maaabsuwelto pa, mas mabuti na yung mas mabilis,” one driver told us. Because of our slow and lopsided justice system where bribery is rampant, the poor people are discontented and now have a high tolerance when it comes to the neutralization of criminals.
