Pacquiao decks Morales: Doubt no more!

Who cares about coup plots, Garci, VFA, etc.? Manny Pacquiao didn’t leave it to the judges this time. He simply outpunched, battered, then dropped Mexico’s Erik Morales in the 10th. That explosive left of his did the final honors.

It was a "new" Pacquiao who barraged Morales, who had never been knocked out in his career, then knocked him down twice in painful rapid succession, moving the referee to stop the slaughter. Morales was a warrior who had won his fights 48-3 with 34 knock-outs. Now he’s kaput. Manny P. got his revenge in the same Thomas & Mack Arena in Las Vegas where he had been outpointed by the Mexican ten months ago by just two points – 115-113 – in the score cards of the three judges. This time there was no hairline decision. In a burst of speed and power, Pacquiao sent Morales reeling from round to round, and in the 10th, flattened him.

There is no joy in Tequila country, wild rejoicing in the Mabuhay Land of the Sunrise. Now, as Number One challenger, Manny P. has a crack at Numero Uno himself, the title-holder and champ, another Mexican, Marco Antonio Barrera.

Pacquiao’s got $2 million in his pocket, a murderous left and a snappy right hook. Yesterday, the world – and surely the Philippines – were his oyster. Will success give him indigestion? If not, the best is yet to come. The road to glory is wide open for Manny P.

In the meantime, a nation, shrugging off disappointments and cares, hails its "hero" and dances in jubilation. Truly, the Comeback Kid, Pinoy-style!

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There will be a lot of Monday morning comment about how Manny Pacquiao did it. A bit like the Monday-morning quarterbacking so popular in America after a Roseball football game. I’ll leave it to the experts and aficionados.

Now let’s do some Monday-morning comment on how the Cha-cha furor seems to be fading – and almost winding down.

It’s not clear how the proponents of fast-tracking the adoption of a new Constitution designed to switch our entire system from Presidential to Parliamentary will now proceed. Will they be able to jump-start the process after it stalled by being rejected by the Senate? If the Senators won’t play, probably for fear or resentment of losing their jobs and perks, how can Congress convert itself into a Constituent Assembly? Even our House politicians who are part-time salamankeros can’t perform that magic trick.

The public sniggered at our Senators’ refusal, and at their sanctimonious huffing and puffing, instead of waxing indignant at the save-my-job Senators. This may reveal that there’s no popular enthusiasm for Cha-cha, or to some "miracle" working conversion of our system to Parliamentary – indeed, there seems to be widespread indifference. In running a country, it’s the men and women who do it who count, not some plan to reform the system which promises to elect, under this new set-up, the very same people and dynasties who mucked things up previously. Same players, different team-names and uniforms. (I didn’t say, mind you, the same dogs with different collars).

A Constitution is an organic law. Look at some of our other laws which aren’t being enforced, like the law which proposes to ban family dynasties. The dynasts are all over the place, among them some of the most avid in changing the Constitution.

As for the Parliamentary system, if you ask me, it’s a bit dangerous for us Filipinos to adopt it. It works in Britain, in the "Mother of Parliaments," but it took centuries to refine the set-up, with the Brits having to fight a series of bloody civil wars, and, in one egregious move, a Parliament beheaded a King. (In its present form, Cha-cha appears, among its varied aspects, designed to protect a Queen, not discombobulate, much less "behead" her).

In France, the system is a bit mestizo, with a strong President on top, a Prime Minister running the show, and a parliament (National Assembly) giving plenty of speeches but otherwise ignored.

In truth, we’re much more like the Italians in temperament than the above. And look at what the Parliamentary system has given the Italian Republic: No less than 55 governments since the end of World War II.

The fact is, I don’t quite understand why there’s such a stampede on the part of many of our leaders (trying to drag a puzzled populace along with them) to throw out the old Constitution – which is decidedly faulty, of course – and fabricate an entirely new one. Is a Parliamentary system the only miracle cure? In most countries, unless a violent Revolution takes place, they amend the Constitution, not scrap it. Thus it was in the United States, although they had to fight a bloody Civil War to uphold and interpret it. The Americans amended their Constitution 27 times – would you believe, the first version didn’t have a Bill of Rights which had to be inserted. If California Governor and ex-Superstar Arnold Schwarzenneger keeps falling off his motorcycle, they won’t even have to amend it the 28th time, to enable Schwarzie to "Terminate" the US Presidency by running for it. (Aside from the eleven stitches or so poor Arnold got on his face from his biking fall, he could, alas, be riding for a fall the next election).

In sum: let’s think twice before rushing to Parliament. But after all, it seems aren’t even thinking about that prospect at all.

Look at "People Power." President GMA didn’t even bother to celebrate the EDSA Dos "People Power" upsurge which put her in office.

The message is that People Power has its time and place, but it’s time we stopped commemorating such demonstrations year after year, and concentrated our efforts on building our economy and our nation. This is not to honor People Power less – but to give ourselves the time to make its aftermath meaningful. GMA’s sin, in fact, is that she has been decreeing too many fiestas and holidays.

I’m glad – for a change – she didn’t overdo this last one.

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There’s a report that a group of feedmillers has recently been importing corn and wheat feeds from China. From China, would you believe? These guys must be off their rockers. China is bird-flu ground zero. That was where all this whole micro-terror, pandemic mess originated. I’m an admirer of much that China does, but the record shows that anything which comes out of that country is a potential biological threat. I really find it disturbing to hear some traders and businessmen, meaning the Philippine Association of Feed Millers Inc. (PAFMI) imported some 30,000 metric tons of wheat from China in December, and recently managed to bring in 24,050 MT of yellow corn this month. Industry watchers report that the group has bought another 44,000 MT of wheat set to arrive from China next month.

Non-believers – those who think the threat of a bird flu pandemic is just one elaborate scare scam of big pharma – may argue that we’re talking about corn and wheat here, not the birds themselves. Well, my myopic friends, let me tell you the reason for my discontent.

China is not exactly a model of sanitation and modernity when it comes to processing grains. The way their farmers do things out there is pretty much the same way we do it here: low-tech. They, like us, line up and sun-dry their grains on roads, pavements and similar surfaces before these are milled. This is economical, but the problem with this method is that it exposes grains to migratory birds and domestic fowls that may spread the virus through their wastes and feces that could contaminate the grains.

Even without direct contamination, inserting China into the country’s grain supply chain of the local livestock industry creates an impression that Philippine poultry products are at a high risk of being contaminated with the bird flu virus.

There is a very good reason why the government must maintain its ban on corn and wheat imports from China, and that reason is called "H5N1". The deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza affects mostly birds, but it has so far infected about 150 people and killed at least 79 in various parts of the world since it re-emerged in 2003.

The Philippines has been fortunate so far to have remained free of this microkiller, but remember the question has always been ‘when’, not ‘if.’

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There’s another reason why I don’t think it’s a good idea to let feedmillers import corn and wheat at this point in time, one that’s closer to my Ilocano heart. Imports, the bete noire of local producers, tend to bring down domestic prices. That’s bad news for farmers up north and down south – and they include my Ilocano brethren – who are already preparing for their expected peak harvests in the first quarter of the year.

Some reprobates from PAFMI are even proposing to let them bring in corn and wheat free of import duties. That could bring down the landed cost of corn to P7.50 a kilo, way below the current price of P8 to P9.40 a kilo.

The government currently levies a tariff of 35 percent on corn imported under the Philippines’ "minimum access volume" (MAV) agreement with its trading partners. Outside MAV, the tariff goes to as high as 50 percent.

Cut the tariff and there won’t be an incentive for our farmers to plant corn. Without that incentive, we’ll even be more dependent on imports, and, well, that’s bad news for everyone.

I am not against importation per se. If there really is a need to import goods that we desperately need, then by all means buy them. I am, however, also an advocate of fair trade. Give the local guy a fighting chance! Give him his due for his hard and honest labor.