Think about it
Bebot Villar next BoC chief?
By Jun Velasco
WATCHING Joey de Venecia III throw those gentle swings at controversial Comelec chairman Ben Abalos reminds us of his boyhood, when we’d act as his escort to some social obligations (mostly of the congressman) of his erpat, then oil-man businessman Joe de V, sent him.
Joey, with then abundant hair (it has receded a bit now) and perennial baby face, was already smart and witty that fit him to be the big man’s heir in business and politics. One thing we saw early in the boy, he was honest to a fault.
While we listened to his brickbats at Abalos, we saw the beginning of the poll man’s fall. Joey the Third has the Junior’s lucid mind, fighting spirit and eloquence.
May tulog si Ben Abalos pare ko.
For probably six years now, that word “broadband” has been associated with Joey. Joey took around his company, Broadband Philippines, at the Eastwood. We were impressed by the sweep and range of his program.
If you ask us, Joey will easily trounce his aging and oversexed foe whose name is tainted by the country’s dirty elections.
* * *
Like Tour of Luzon legend Jess Garcia, we are one of the millions of boxing fans who would abandon anything to watch a Manny Pacquiao fight on TV.
Because of Jess, we were able to chat with Juan Marquez thru our cellphone a few months back when he fought in Hidalgo, Mexico.
Come November, most of the world’s boxing greats are coming to Manila to attend the World Boxing Council convention under skipper Joe Sulaiman, a close friend of Oscar dela Hoya, who is Mexican like Marquez and Jess Garcia (partly).
We love to boast to Jess and cumpadre Al Mendoza, the sporting world’s Nick Joaquin, we saw De La Hoya in l992 at the Hyatt in Los Angeles. De La Hoya then had yet to hit super stardom in boxing.
Jess says Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Mike Tyson, Marco Barrera, Erik Morales, Juan Marquez, of course, De La Hoya, our own Manny Paquiao and many others are expected to grace the WBC global confab.
Sport aficionados like Mayor Al Fernandez (he is a shoo-in for Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas president in the Region and national chair of Patafa ( Phil. Amateur Trackand Field Ass’n), pare Al Mendoza, sports announcer Hermie Rivera, sports writer Recah Trinidad. Vice Governor Manny Pinol, Rhee Fer H should not miss that boxing summit.
We’re asked why we root for boxing in spite of its bloody sport because boxing gives us the highest elements of conflict. We learn something from it, like how to duck from life lethal blows and how to deliver the kill when the prey is not looking.
* * *
The country’s economic managers have found a savior in Usec Bebot Villar, the country’s anti smuggling czar, who has exceeded his two-month collections by P2 billion! Super-good!
Because of Bebot, the Bureau of Customs’ shortfall has been more than covered up.
Although his Presidential Anti Smuggling Group only started last June, it upped BoC’s collections from Pl7 billion to P2l plus billion. .
A government worker who obviously goes the extra mile, Usec Bebot has been zeroing in on smugglers at the Bureau of Customs and other smuggling fronts in the country.
At the rate he is going, we won’t be surprised if the Sto.Tomas superman will be named Bureau of Customs chief soon.
* * *
Before the verdict was announced, the Sandiganbayan’s tough work on Erap’s plunder and perjury cases was conceded to come out with fair and impartial results.
Even the opposition has yielded to that.
Now, it’s all over, and thank God, those who described the verdict as a kangaroo court decision, of smacking of politics, baseless, and all that muck belong to a minority few.
The relief that followed it should at least teach us something: in spite of its flaws and faults, the system still works. We better make it work if we are to survive as a nation.
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/think-about-it/)
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