how to extend

The words of a Pacquiao fan: “This is how we celebrate a clean victory.”


The politicians were out in full force yesterday, over at Manny’s victory party, soliciting votes.

Sometimes you get the feeling that for everyone we vote into office, it’s like we’ve gotten ourselves into a bad marriage. They’re always there during the good times and absent during the bad. You long for divorce, but it’s messy.

This is why we should all strive to go into a long courtship, so that we can get to know the people who’re running after our votes; not just pencil in the name of anyone who’s gotten themselves into the box office (or who makes herself look like the box office). Sometimes, I don’t know why we like to punish ourselves.

We don’t, of course. I get the feeling that during elections, the lot of us are like wanderers who’ve gotten lost in the desert, running after chimeras. The problem is, after we realize that all we’ve been running after is a mirage, we’ve had already spent a great deal of our energy chasing after it.

Meanwhile, vultures are flying above and around us, waiting for us to finally expire (and feed on our corpses).


I didn’t get to see the Pacquiao match Sunday. I was desperately trying to finish a paper I had to submit. Plus, it didn’t help that my friends already told me who was going to win, and when, right when the match started. It made for a very good betting position (which was what I did to the hapless during the Barrera match, haha), but I was feeling honest last Sunday (even when I’d yet to hear mass- I’m going to lay off the unaware obtuse awhile, haha) so I held back. And anyway, I wasn't really into boxing. (Excuses.) All that mattered was that Manny won.

It’s really an amazing thing when you realize that everyone’s at home watching the match. The streets were totally bereft of people, if you happened to check. The closest we’ve come to this was during the heyday of Ginebra, each time it managed to claw its way to the Finals. But even then, not everyone rooted for the same team. Sunday, we were all for Team Philippines. For ten rounds, we were all united. How can we extend that into a couple more years?