LET’S GET IT ON – What Manny missed as an athlete

Manny Pacquiao, the biggest sports celebrity produced by the country, has never played in the Palarong Pambansa.
That’s the one thing that separates some 12,000 athletes who will begin playing in the Palarong Pambansa in Davao, del Norte on the same day Manny will earn P3.2 billion from one single fight.
Manny’s list of accomplishments could run kilometric. But it will never include playing in the Palaro.
Nevertheless, it does not make Manny a lesser athlete because he never played in the Palarong Pambansa. We understand he had to skip school in exchange of making a living. In the film “Kid Kulafu”, he was shown to have fought his first boxing match for a measly fifty pesos.
I did some math and if Manny indeed were to play in the palarong Pambansa, it could have happened between 1994 to 1996. I covered the Palaro in Cebu (1994) and Socsargen (1995). Manny would have fought in front of his hometown crowd had he enrolled in school. Manny instead turned pro in January 25, 1995 and fought Edmund Inting Ignacio in Misamis Occidental and won a fourth round decision.
By the time the Palaro was staged in Socsargen in 1996, Manny had compiled an 11-0 record in the pros and was halted only in his 12th fight against Rustico Torrecampo on February 9, 1996.
Manny chalked up a string of five more wins that same year highlighted by a second round TKO of South Korean Sung Yul Lee on December 28.
So, what if Manny instead boxed as an amateur and not as a young pro in 1995?
Manny could have fought in the Socsargen Palaro and watched by his hometown fans who will have no idea that he would be a sports icon 20 years ahead. Manny probably would have boxed in the Olympics and won the country’s first gold. A lot of possibilities actually.
So when the Palaro opens on May 3, most of the country’s young athletes will be dreaming of the life that has come for Manny. Not everyone gets to play for P5.2 billion in one single day. Even a huge fraction of it would be enough for many.
However, I must say that playing in the Palarong Pambansa is a selfless path. At the Palaro, your name is not written in your uniform. Only the name of the region you represent. In the Palaro, you are not Manny Pacquiao. You are simply known as a boxer from Socsargen.
Manny never experienced that.
In fact, Manny’s shorts is worth close to P100 million with each logo paying millions just to be printed there.
In the Palaro, athletes will fight for a medal. Something that will cost about P500 for a custom-made hardware or a measly P100 from your favorite Indian store.
Manny too never experienced that.
The point is, it does not make athletes of the Palarong Pambansa a lesser breed than a Manny Pacquiao. While it’s good to dream of a Manny Pacquiao future, it is also worth a lifetime of accolades to play for honor.