Finally, Filipino boxing icon Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao showed to the whole world, especially the Mexicans, that indeed he is a world champion. He defeated boxing sensation Oscar De La Hoya in the 9th round of the scheduled 12 rounds. Contrary to media hype, De La Hoya was out classed and out fought by Manny. The bout was far from what was expected. It was indeed one-sided and lopsided with De La Hoya miserably out-foxed by Manny, again contrary to those forecast of boxers who said De La Hoya as was the wily fox out to end Pacquiao's career. Watching the fight live on TV courtesy of my cousin James Rama and nephew Edu Rama, many viewers are now wondering if people worldwide were not taken for a ride because I could see that De La Hoya was really far from his old form. He could hardly hit Manny with his punches while Manny was well prepared and intelligently avoided the punches of De La Hoya. Age may have finally caught up with De La Hoya. That is why it was very difficult for him to put up a good fight with a young boxer like Manny.But this theory has already been proven wrong by another old boxing sensation, Hopkins, who at 41 years old defeated a young world champion in a lopsided bout. The sparring partner of De La Hoya, Valero, may have revealed the real reason Manny clobbered De La Hoya when he narrated that Oscar doesn't like to run and did not really prepare well for the fight. Oscar may have been overconfident and paid dearly for this. Now is the time for De La Hoya to consider quitting boxing. He doesn’t have the discipline like Hopkins to give the boxing crowd a decent fight. Manny should move on and forget about giving De La Hoya a chance to fight him again, and instead look for another boxing sensation to entertain the world with. Hatton and Valero are two of the boxing sensations that Manny could have set his eyes on. By this time he could plan for his retirement while he is still up there unlike De La Hoya. But in the fight with Manny, Oscar showed the world his class by fighting courageously and seeing to it that he left while he was still standing. Manny should give himself two to three more fights before hanging up his gloves for good. After all, he has already proven to the whole world, to himself and the boxing industry that he is one hell of a great boxer who has defeated some of the legends in the boxing world. Congratulations to Manny Pacquiao and may you have more boxing victories to come. By the way, forget about your political ambition because this time it might be doubly difficult to defeat a political clan like the Chiongbians in the field of politics. Concentrate on doing what you are good - boxing and making the Filipinos proud and united as a people. Today, you are the only one person in our country who can unite the Filipinos. That is a rare virtue that you have shown. * * * What are we looking for in the year 2009 when it comes to the economy? This could be the question occupying the minds of our government and politicians — if indeed they truly are for the welfare of the people. Perry Fajardo, a former Neda regional director and a political economy professor, said the government through the President has announced that the country is still doing well despite the financial collapse of Wall Street. The Philippine government kept bragging that despite the financial difficulties experienced by the world, the Philippines still had a modest growth of about 4.1 percent in the last quarter. But our economists like Fajardo are saying that economic growth is basically going downhill and could not be expected to grow next year because we shall be starting to feel and to be affected by the ill effects of the economic slowdown of other countries. Definitely, the global financial crisis would have an immediate effect on our Overseas Filipino Workers who have been a great source of foreign exchange remittances that have helped our economic growth. The export sector will also be badly hurt by the financial slowdown of the world economy. The world market for our export products would definitely tighten or may even stop buying Philippine products. In Singapore, according to Fajardo, the government is taking advantage of the crisis by retraining its people for other productive endeavors to help them survive. The Singapore government is spending for the retraining of its people. I don’t know if the Arroyo administration has a massive program to retrain Filipinos who lose their jobs abroad. Fajardo said he also expects people to be careful with spending during the Christmas holiday, as many are keeping their money for the rainy days ahead next year. I guess our batch in the Master's degree program this semester will have a unique experience as our teacher in sustainable development, lawyer Golly Ramos, is preparing a syllabus that guarantees learning experiences outside the four walls of the university. We’ll not just be students of the environment but also engaged in protecting of what is left of our environment. Another interesting class this semester is that of Arnel Cuantero, a Neda-7 official who will be sharing with us his expertise in Philippine Realities. He asked us to prepare research papers on interesting issues about politics and its realities. Kudos should go to our chairperson Jiah Sayson for assembling a faculty who are not just experts in their fields but are innovative in their approach to learning. | 
