Critical drug fight up after Gilas and Pagara

A REPORT from California the morning after the much-awaited fight of Filipino Albert “Prince” Pagara said the “fallen boxer was carried out of the ring on a spine board, with a neck brace, immobilized.”

Pagara of the famous ALA stable of Cebu was taken out by raging Mexican bull Cesar Juarez via savage goring to the body in the eighth round at San Mateo Event Center in San Mateo, California.

The 22-year-old Pagara, who had personally picked Juarez for a foe, was rushed to a hospital where he was declared out of danger later.

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While leaving the hospital, Pagara boldly promised to be back.

“Magbo-boxing pa po. Naunahan lang tayo (We are going to continue to fight. He got me first),” Philboxing.com chief Dong Secuya quoted Pagara as saying.

Pagara will remain under observation for a couple of weeks. He was ordered to take a two-month compulsory break from boxing.

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Pagara, for the record, was being proposed as the next big thing in Philippine boxing, until he suffered that stunning stoppage.

Before Pagara, there was a bigger well-followed fight by the Gilas Pilipinas national basketball team in the just-concluded Manila Olympic Qualifying Tournament at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.

The Gilas team was rated as a long shot after it got pitted against France and New Zealand in the opening round. After the national team put up a respectable losing stand against France, fifth-seeded in the world, there rose hopes for a solid performance against New Zealand, a lower-ranked outfit which coach Tab Baldwin supposedly knew like the back of his palm.

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Just like Pagara, Gilas played below par to exit in dismal fashion against New Zealand. Gilas got promptly ousted with a 0-2 record.

Unlike Pagara, though, there was no word on what’s in store for the Gilas team at this reporting.  It’s understood the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas would rethink Gilas’ basketball program, before pursuing future international commitments.

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Meanwhile, there’s the war against the monster drug menace—definitely a very critical fight—that deserves everybody’s support and attention.

It’s like this. The score out in the streets, based on the number of slain pushers and assorted suspects, not to mention drug dependents who have surrendered, would tend to show that the Duterte administration is in indeed in full control of the situation.

If in basketball or boxing, the score would show not only a mismatch, but a no-contest.

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Don’t be fooled, please. A serious check in surrounding druggie nooks and other dark corners in our neighborhood in Mandaluyong City bared that narcotics, mainly shabu, continue to change hands.

This was confirmed on Sunday by KB, trusted confidante of this reporter, after he had spied on BB, a known village drug-user, who was keeping a phone conversation at the back of a parked passenger jeepney. BB, visibly high and deluded, was openly belittling the Duterte campaign. He was explaining, dreamy eyed, that the anti-drug drive would be dead after four months.

“Wala ‘yan, di tatagal nang apat na buwan ‘yan (It’s nothing; it won’t last four months),” BB reportedly yawned.

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Earlier that day, there was a report that D, the hated village faggot who had gone into hiding, was back with a bang. He was seen at midstreet, tinted hairdo wet with rain, taunting anybody brave enough to buy him shabu—“Ibili ninyo ako ng bato (Buy me shabu).”

This is not to say that the drug menace could itself be back with a vengeance.

However, there are many hidden addicts that evidently continue to get their secret supply from third-tier sources and who also refused to be duly awed, saying they have a human rights advocate to save them—“Nandiyan naman si De Lima (De Lima is there to protect us).”