In an exclusive two-part interview with The Telegraph
, promoter Bob Arum has revealed that Congressman Manny Pacquiao is likely to fight on for perhaps three years, post-election. Arum, who knows a thing or two about politics having worked as a young lawyer for the Kennedy Administration in the early Sixties weeding out corruption in boxing, believes Pacquiao will now enter the ring to invest funds into the province of Sarangani, where the people voted him in on May 10.In other words, he will fight on two fronts: for his honour as a pugilist, and he will be fighting for his people. Can there any greater motivation than that ?
There is little that can dissuade Arum, 80 years young next year, that Pacquiao’s calling into the field of social privation has set him on the path to becoming President of the Philippines one day. It is a staggering assessment given the 31-year-old, seven weight world champion’s early life, and lack of a formal education. Arum told me that at times on his election campaign, Pacquiao resembled a latter-day revolutionary leader, who clearly, in his own language, is an orator who can move people en masse.
Firstly, Arum was shocked at the manner of Pacquiao’s election victory and the momentum it generated.“It surprised me that he won. I was there in 2007, [when Pacquiao stood for the first time, and lost], and it was so disorganised and dysfunctional. This time it was so organised, he went out and talked to the people in the fields, in seven major municipalities. There are seven centres in the province surrounded by barangues, which are little townships.”
“They went into every little barangue, and started with two or three people. ‘Do you love Manny ?’ they would ask. ‘Yes’, would come the reply. ‘Well that’s not enough,’ they were saying. ‘You need to join the People’s Champ Movement. You have to go out and recruit and recruit more people’. And this grassroots organising became as sophisticated as an American or an English campaign. They organised themselves in each of these little townships, where so many people are illiterate, and where they spoke different dialects, and 100 became 500 and so on… and it just grew with every single barangue, even to the extent that he then captured the people from the barangues of his political opponents, where the ruling political family had been entrenched for years, had owned all the businesses for years and years, and where people had been working for the family business.”
“To win every barangue was amazing. When the results starting coming in, even in areas where the opponents’ businesses were very strong, Manny was winning by two to one.”
Arum believes he witnessed a zeal in Pacquiao he has never seen previously. “Pacquiao has a calling outside boxing, there is no question about it. I mention Yuri Foreman in the same breath. I promote Foreman, and he believes he has a calling other than boxing, other than being a pound for pound fighter or winning world titles. He believes his boxing will eventually help his life as a Rabbi. It is a calling beyond boxing, and Manny believes the same.”
“In his province there are no hospitals, the schools are far less than adequate, and he intends to do something about it. It’s going to take a lot of hard work, effort and money. As a result I believe Manny will be fighting for a while, possibly a few years, simply because he will only be able to build the province by earning money from continuing to fight.”
“By fighting and using his money to invest in the greater good, he will show the people of his province, and more widely, the Filipino people, what he can accomplish. I believe he can do it, too. It will be a real challenge for him to be accepted into the next stage, as a senator, but he has the chance now to prove his worth to his people.”
“If he continues on that path, I hope that one day he will be President. I believe he will be. I may not be alive to see it, but I think he will get there. Look, he’s not going to be President of the Philippines because he knocks out Floyd Mayweather. Of course, he would be a national hero for doing so. He is already loved as a sportsman and a personality. People aren’t like that when judging the people who affect their daily lives in a more direct way. They are much more discerning. If he can demonstrate what he says he wants to accomplish in the province, and become a senator, I believe he will transform the Philippines one day. I truly hope I am around to see it. His zeal makes me want to change the world.”
Source: blogs.telegraph.co.uk
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