How to own the world (and everything in it) the Pacquiao way By Kai Rosario PWD Contributing Writer

He is a walking weapon and he knows it. Manny Pacquiao is perhaps the only living man who closely approximates a comic book superhero. Strong, invincible, relatively goodlooking, perfect abs with power punches to boot. His 1-year old Ferrari 458 Italia even resembles a bat mobile. His multi-million net worth can fly him anywhere in the world whenever he wants or get his hands on anything he fancies.

Manny has indeed gone far from the 12-year-old boy in General Santos City who joins amateur boxing competitions on Sundays earning him P50 for food, to the worlds pound-for-pound king with a guaranteed purse of no less than $15million dollars just to step into a ring in Las Vegas.

Nineteen years ago, he had to lie about his age just so he could be allowed to box professionally by the Games and Amusements Board in the Philippines. The lie led him to twelve wins before he got a taste of his first knock out. Manny wanted to give up then and just return to his job as a construction worker but a good friend had enough sense to tell him that losing is just as part of the game as winning. Manny listened. A month later, he was back at the training gym.

Manny treats boxing not as a sport but rather as a business. Business of discipline, hard training and even harder fights. Just like any business, his entourage of trainers, promoters, coaches, nutritionist, advisers, cooks, dishwashers, car washers, drivers, publicists, gofers, security, and their respective assistants, are treated like a family. They eat what he eats, sleeps where he sleeps, and earns generously as he does. Earnings that do not necessarily mean money; they could be as priceless as his attention for the day or the pride of sitting beside him at the dinner table, sleeping at the foot of his bed or just being at the receiving end of his whims.

The young Manny had to take on adult responsibility and skip childhood. His parents separated when he was barely 13 and he was left with his mother, Dionisia, together with his five other siblings. Each kid had to do his part in putting food on the table. Like a million Filipinos, Mannys youth painted daily survival. He had to work to earn the money to buy the food his body needs for work. A desperate cycle of ditch-digging. From selling doughnuts and flowers in the street, painting and welding at a construction company to sewing at a tailoring shop, Manny now is one of the most sought-after product endorsers of local and international brands. Hence, the calm confidence and taunting toughness he exudes whenever a boxing opponent clobbers him. Life has punched him around for too long, theres nothing he could not possibly endure.

Hence, the wild boy days later on his life as a means of reclaiming all the juvenile activities he missed from bars, pool halls, basketball, cockfighting, endless karaoke sessions and even women. Vices that almost destroyed Manny and his family. Rumors that he has an alleged lovechild with a pretty student also became a bankable topic for local tabloids and entertainment shows. Simultaneous with these reports, Jinkee, Mannys wife, is launched as an endorser of a big beauty enhancement firm thru giant billboards of a vamp and gorgeous wife with the words: Dont get mad, get beautiful. In the months that followed, Jinkee would confirm in an interview that she and Manny are working on their marriage and that her self-reinvention worked like a pill for reverse psychology. Thereafter, video footages of the couple would show a sweeter and more attentive husband. Growing up in a largely Catholic country and with a religious mother, the faith and the virtues were instilled on Manny even before he had his own discretion to choose for himself. He practices his faith publicly as can be seen in the boxing ring where he kneels and prays before and after a fight. His poster for a sports line even depicts him kneeling with arms spread out and a rosary on his neck. A heartwarming image of Mannys deep faith and devotion to the Lord. Masses are held before and after his fights, and his first stop upon arrival in the Philippines is the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene in

Quiapo, Manila. Mannys faith and religious upbringing is the source of his conservative stance as a politician on sex education and artificial birth control. He is a staunch oppositor of the Reproductive Health Bill in the Philippines, which if passed into law would permit the government to use the peoples money in conducting nationwide artificial family planning seminars and in distributing artificial birth control items. It is Mannys firm belief that family planning must be done naturally according to what the Bible teaches. Bible reading is a habit he has recently pursued as he put behind his wild boy days. Mommy Dionisia, Jinkee and the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines are more than happy to stamp their seal of approval.

He has also expressed his conservative view on legalized same sex marriage and disagreed with Obama. The story about his comment though was deliberately tweaked to mean that he wanted homosexuals dead. The inaccurate comment spread like wildfire and Manny is banned from a popular shopping mall in Los Angeles. Petitions for Nike to drop him as endorser were likewise lobbied in the Internet. If Manny werent as famous and influential as he is, his opinion on same-sex marriage, which is shared by a lot of other Americans anyway, would just be another dust in the wind. But he is famous and is included in Forbess list of 100 most influential people, so his words can change minds, fuel emotions and even motivate bad journalism ethics. After his June 9 fight with Timothy Bradley, Manny is set to film his first Hollywood movie where he will play a gangster. Another feat he will add to the long list of his many selves a street vendor, tailor, welder, boxer, family man, congressman, endorser, donor, benefactor, friend, and a servant of God. Manny Pacquiao had a simple dream to get out of poverty. His faith, perseverance and resilience gave him more. A good and confortable life with his family, illustrious recognitions from various magazines and sports guilds the world over, second chances in marriage and in the boxing arena, sturdy faith and a country to make happy and proud.

His quick feet may have brought him 10,000 miles away from his home in General Santos City but his eyes and heart never left. The man has always looked and came back to his virtues, his faith, the poverty, the survival, his family, to the ditch-diggers, to a country that needs a sincere politician with big a heart as he hopes he could be, to a people that craves moral examples.

He had spoken in crowds but has kept his virtues, he has walked with bigwigs but he has never lost his touch to the common people, his kindness and generosity turned foes into friends and friends into family, he has an entire country counting on him but never too much, he stumbled but got up, and he has filled an almost helpless childhood by running a great distance to success. He has become a man.

If a hero is someone who has a distinguished ability, strength or courage then Manny Pacquiao is not a hero, because, anybody can fight poverty or any hard wall life may bring, anybody can punch beyond a simple plan, anybody can stand up from a fall. What makes Manny different, though, is that he never stopped believing that anything is possible with faith, hard work and benevolent purpose, and for that he owns the world.