Bayanihan poster boy scores big KO

MANNY Pacquiao on Sunday marked the first week of his full reinstatement among the world’s  boxing elite with a communal meal (budol fight) among victims of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” in Guiuan, Eastern Samar,  where the world’s strongest storm was said to have made a first landfall.

It was a big knockout (move) by any measure.

With his ruddy, bearded looks, Pacquiao appeared twice as triumphant than a week ago when he showed up late for a victory press conference at The Venetian in Macau nursing a bluish swelling over his right eye.

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Pacquiao had to explain why and how he allowed the badly beaten Brandon Rios to escape after he refused to nail the  brawling Mexican-American down in the several times he had shocked and shaken him up.

Compassion, no doubt,  played a big part in Pacquiao’s failure to stop Rios.

But on Sunday, a week after his full-cycle boxing comeback, Pacquiao scored big by lending a supremely compassionate hand to the cold, hungry victims whose lives have been wrecked and whose simple homes were blown to bits by the super storm.

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Pacquiao pulled the poor victims up from where they had been slammed hopeless by the immeasurable disaster.

There was cash, food, copies of the Bible.

But the real story there was how Pacquiao warmly knocked hope back into the lives—the heart and soul—of his poor fallen countrymen.

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After landing in Guiuan on Saturday, he toured the devastated area, thereby distributing food items, handing copies of the Holy Bible and giving P1,000 each to nearly 500 evacuees from Barangay 6.

The process lasted four hours.

He spent the night in a tent city put up for the evacuees.

The presence of Pacquiao, once also hungry and homeless, will no doubt burn in the memory of those who have received assistance and given hope, including those who have merely caught a sight of their idol.

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While in Guiuan, Pacquiao, a Born-Again Christian, topped one sortie by advising the evacuees never to give up, persevere, and keep their faith in the Loving God.

The visit of Pacquiao proved doubly significant due to the fact that he did try to give as much as he could afford, after having had to borrow following the government freeze on his bank assets.

That fact alone should make Pacquiao hands-down the poster boy of the unique Filipino Bayanihan spirit.

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He was heading for Tacloban City on Sunday evening, and was scheduled to visit Palo and Ormoc, Leyte yesterday.

Anyway, while Pacquiao continued to score big, things don’t augur as well in his tax appeal hearing scheduled on Dec. 5.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue appeared more than sure it has a solid case against Pacquiao.

But the tax hearing should also be able to determine how Pacquiao ended up with this money mess— who cheated him, how and why?

Or is Pacquiao armed with enough ammunition to spring yet another happy knockout?