Manny Pacquiao versus Cynthia Villar in 2022?

The two richest senators of the country, Manny Pacquiao and Cynthia Villar are more likely to be pushed by their respective parties to meet in a historic showdown come 2022. We are making this bold prediction. This will happen if and when Bong Marcos is not going to be chosen by the Nacionalista Party and Inday Sara will yield as PDP-Laban standard bearer to the third-richest boxing champion in the world.

The first question is why Pacquiao? My answer is simple. He is the only one who can afford to fund a presidential campaign even without the support of Chinese taipans and foreign business tycoons. He is worth about $500 million. Multiply that by 49, and you will be astounded how immensely wealthy Pacman is. And he’s the only one whose name was never tainted with any blemish of graft. Not even the CPP/NPA/NDF has any valid issue against Manny. Even the Church wouldn’t mind his being a born-again Christian. He’s a bible-reading, bible-sharing, and visibly-reformed sinner who teaches the bible to his family and followers. Above all, he’s the idol of the masses, the inspiration of the poor, and defender of the oppressed. His life is a beautiful story to tell, from being a construction worker to a senator and the only world holder of eight boxing championships in different divisions.

Pacquiao is the latest version of Ramon Magsaysay, who was a mechanic who married a rich heiress and daughter of his employer. Magsaysay was a Liberal Party Cabinet member of President Elpidio Quirino who appointed him as secretary of national defense because of his sterling record as a guerilla leader. Magsaysay was recruited by the Nacionalista Party and pushed to challenge his own boss. He defeated Quirino overwhelmingly. He was the first one to wear a barong on his presidential oath-taking and spoke Tagalog. He opened Malacañang to the masses, negotiated for the surrender of the Huk leader Luis Taruc, put impetus to agrarian reform, and he became the most loved, respected and esteemed president of the Philippines. When he died in a plane crash in Cebu, millions of Filipinos cried at losing a very good and honest president. Pacquiao is like Magsaysay, who had no college degree.

Manny can make people cry with his stories of having to sell bread, and having to sleep in construction sites before he found his gold mine in boxing. Despite his limited height and rather diminutive figure, he proved how a small guy can become great to the eyes of the world. He can make people laugh with his anecdotes about his struggles to find his place in a very competitive and often harsh world. He is now a very rich man, with at least nine multi-million mansions, (two in the US, two in Gensan, one in Sarangani, one in Boracay, and one in Forbes), private planes, yachts, and hundreds of luxury cars. His wife, Jinkee, is one of the country's most sophisticated glamour women, with thousands of branded shoes and luxury bags from Fendi, Louis Vuitton, and Hermes. And still, they spend millions for charity, building homes for the poor, sending scholars to school, paying hospital bills and giving ayudas to COVID and disaster victims.

The voters are sick and tired of well-educated trapos who govern the nation and enrich themselves from corruption. More than two-thirds of the people who vote are poor, very poor, and middle-class. The rich, the high-browed socialites and oligarchs are few and do not even cast their votes. Manny is the hero of the poor. He inspires the masses with his fabled rags to riches episodes. He can also attract the support of the young, the students, the academicians because although not a college graduate, he believes in the importance of education. He sends all his four children to Brent International School. On the other hand, Cynthia Villar has always been a rich girl. The poor cannot identify with her. Manny will win over Cynthia in any political contest. I'm betting my last cent on this.

If Manny can get a young, fresh, and promising vice presidential candidate preferably from Luzon, somebody like Isko Moreno, whose life story is very much similar to his own, then he can indeed give Villar an exciting run for her money. Manny can defeat Bongbong Marcos, whose name is tainted, and Leni Robredo who has not shown presidential readiness so far, and even Inday Sara. But these two will never run against each other. They cannot be a tandem too, because they have the same geographical bailiwick.