Sportsmen in politics

I TEXTED Manny Pacquiao’s top aide about the bills his boss sponsored and shepherded into law during the 15th Congress.

The fighting Sarangani congressman’s record probably won’t amount to a hell of beans. Still, the assistant is taking a lot of time to respond.

Have you heard anything spectacular that the boxer, who ran unopposed for his second term, did in his first three years in the august halls?

Perhaps not. And yet the incoming class for the 16th Congress—the itchy-footed and the junketeers, particularly—will await Pacquiao’s return with boundless enthusiasm.

With him around, the House becomes one big exclusive lottery building. And coming to Congress is a bit like tuning in to an episode of “Eat Bulaga!” and finding that it is being hosted by no other than the Pacman himself.

Who will be the lucky lawmakers from both sides of the aisle that the boxer blesses and showers with goodies—plane tickets and prime seats for his upcoming million-dollar bouts?

The jockeying to win the famous fighter’s attention is expected to start in earnest. His comeback welterweight fight with the younger Brandon Rios will be held at Cotai Arena at Macau’s Venetian Resort Hotel on Nov. 24.

The bout, Pacquiao’s first outside the United States since 2006, bids to appeal to the humongous Chinese pay-per-view market.

Mastering Manny’s mood is not wrong. It’s just not what anyone is expecting from congressional representatives. There’s absolutely nothing here that says to the folks back home, “I am in Congress to serve your interest.”

Among the new House members is another prominent sportsman, PBA coach Joseller “Yeng” Guiao.

Unlike Pacquiao who sometimes takes shelter from partisan bombardment, Guiao—a new congressman from Pampanga’s first district—has the pedigree to parry the arrows in his turf, a perennial political powder keg.

A son of the late Bren Z. Guiao—a newsman before becoming Pampanga governor—Yeng was vice governor for a number of years.

But how he juggles his act from the hard court as Rain or Shine mentor, to lawmaker in Congress and vice versa, can’t be hidden in plain sight.

Isn’t there a law that prohibits lawmakers from engaging in a full-time private employment while performing their roles as a publicly elected official at the same time?

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There could be more sports people elected to office after this year’s midterm elections. But one sports figure that has not escaped my radar is Oscar Moreno.

The former governor of Misamis Oriental, Moreno won’t be in Congress but remains a potent political force.

Moreno will continue in public service, this time as mayor of Cagayan de Oro City after winning a closely fought battle with longtime mayor and incumbent Vicente “Dongkoy” Emano.

The Inquirer has hailed Moreno’s victory over Emano as the culmination of a “long quixotic campaign to uproot an entrenched  ‘Sendong’-stained regime.”

Oscar authored a sports master plan that is the envy of the entire nation. CDO’s Don Gregorio Pelaez Memorial Stadium will give Lingayen’s modern Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center a run for its money anytime.

The province runs a fruitful boxing program. It’s a budding dynasty in the national amateur boxoffs that hope to find raw talent in a sport that still holds the key to our first Olympic gold medal ever.