Pacquiao: A knockout for stupidity

By Al S. Mendoza

YOU are not only the country’s No. 1 boxer but also in the whole universe as well.

You can do anything at will?

I mean, you can do something against legally established laws, let alone public morals, and you go scot-free?

In short, you can get away with crime? All the time?

I guess not.

Manny Pacquiao was recently in the spotlight again but this time, for a different reason.

Not about boxing but about legal matters. In a sense, about morality, too.

He dumped – no, he tried to dump – Solar Entertainment and GMA-7 in favor of ABS-CBN.

It would have been fine, this nation of ours being, again, the champion of freedom of choice.

The trouble is, Pacquiao has a live and valid contract with Solar and GMA-7.

Which means ignoring such contract and signing another one with a rival network is non-sequitor. Out of order per se.

Even one not steeped in law would know that.

If Pacquiao might claim he wasn’t aware of his stupidity when he switched networks, or tried to, drat.

No one could be saved from total shame arising from an act bordering on treachery. Betrayal.

While Pacquiao kept himself shut from the outside world as the news mill swirled with all speculations, Solar was readying a P150-million suit again Pacquiao.

GMA-7 has likewise consulted its battery of lawyers.

As the contract stipulates, GMA-7 is not only Solar’s TV station mandated to carry Pacquiao’s fights up to 2011. GMA-7 is also host to two Pacquaio shows, “Totoy Bato” and “Pinoy Records.”

What really went to Pacquiao’s mind that made him suddenly change networks?

Money?

But he’s got so much moolah already.

He’s already a billionaire after his megabuck fight with Oscar De La Hoya last December, where he earned a billion, if not close to a billion, pesos after stopping De La Hoya in the eighth.

Wealth spawns greed?

I was told the contract with ABS-CBN to include coverage of Pacquiao’s campaign sorties in his congressional bid in Saranggani in 2010 swayed Pacman to jump to the other side.

But as I said, GMA-7 can also do that, help Pacquiao run his campaign in 2010. The network has as much clout as ABS-CBN.

So, back to square one: Why did Pacquiao do such a dastardly thing?

Has success spoiled him as to think wildly in an instant and engage in unsavory actions that he would later regret doing?

Thank God, he listened to reason.

One person vehemently opposed to Pacquiao’s decision was Bob Arum, his American, Harvard-educated promoter of note.

Another was Jeng Gacal, Pacquiao’s Ilocano lawyer, who flew immediately to Los Angeles to admonish Pacman of his indiscretion.

The case is now over. Pacquiao has listened to Arum and Gacal. He stays with Solar and GMA-7.

We all make mistakes. And Pacquiao isn’t exempted.

He has apologized.

I’m sure we have accepted it.

I just hope Pacquiao has learned his lessons well.

Like shame and principle: They are worlds apart.

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