by Ram Maxey
“Edcel knocks out Pacman in House debate” read the four-column caption of a front page item in the May 19 issue of one national daily. The story was about the verbal confrontation the day before (Wednesday) on the House floor between world pound-for-pound king Rep. Manny Paquiao of Sarangani Province and Minority Leader Edcel Lagman on the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill. The Pacman is against the bill’s passage while Lagman is its staunch defender.
Of course there was no knockout in the real sense of the word because what were delivered were only verbal blows by Lagman who pounced on the hapless Pacman who was clearly out of his element, like a fish out of water. If there were snickers emanating from some of the congressmen, that was to be expected. Here was a very popular world figure in sports who has more than a billion pesos in the bank (or shall we say banks?) who now finds himself at the receiving end of an articulate champion of the RH bill. The name Manny Pacquiao rings a bell—many bells in fact—around the world, but who in the world has heard of Edcel Lagman? Or his other colleagues in Congress, for that matter?
When I read in the news that Manny was on his way to Manila to speak against the RH bill, I felt a chill run up my spine. What was he going to say? We all know what he can do inside a ring, but for him to take the floor before his peers in the House and speak against the RH bill? Manny is my idol, the Filipino nation’s idol. We have followed his exploits inside the ring and we are proud of him. We know that his humility is genuine and his desire to help his poor countrymen is not mere make believe. That’s why he is in Congress. We can’t say much for our other countrymen who are members of Congress. We seldom hear or read about them and what they are doing there aside from getting their share of the pork barrel fund and crafting some laws. Many of them are lawyers, professionals, businessmen, hard-boiled politicians. And there in their midst stood a former bakery helper whose educational background still leaves much to be desired.
Manny ought to just stick to doing good things for his district and not embroil himself in controversial issues which are beyond his grasp as a neophyte congressman. He has to learn a lot about congressional work first and not get entangled in floor debates which can only tend to expose his weaknesses as a parliamentarian—which he is not.
While his days in the ring are numbered, time is on his side as a member of Congress where he can learn the ropes, so to speak, after he has left the ropes of the boxing ring where he earned much glory and the oodles of money that went with it.
