Tragedy and Travesty

What do Nicole and Pacquiao have in common?

For one thing, they’re both in the US now, one “for good,” the other, for training. If the US, still a land of opportunity despite recession and returned bonuses, is where fate and fortune take them, then we wish them well.

Nicole’s case is a tragedy all around – there are no winners. Certainly not Daniel Smith, even if his appeal is granted and the guilty verdict is overturned. He has lost over three years of his life and gained many unwanted pounds, and learned a very painful lesson about youthful exuberance and the perils of a lap dance. I wonder if his three shipmates and co-accused still hit the bars when they go on shore leave – assuming that they are still in the military – or have they learned their lesson and just go to the souvenir shops and buy fridge magnets.

Nicole, even though she has finally achieved her life’s dream of going to the US, could have gotten there I’m sure by an easier and less circuitous and painful route. I hope she is able to live this down and get past this; I hope where she is is far enough away so that nobody has seen the front pages emblazoned with her full-face photos and full name (not The STAR, for we chose to continue using her code name even when others decided she was fair game after she issued her “recantation”), the woman who cried rape and then later said maybe not.

And the rest of us? We asserted our sovereignty and hauled the US Marines to trial, got one of them convicted but had the rug pulled out from under us when he was taken back to US custody late at night – to avoid traffic, we were told. What to do with Daniel Smith is a pesky question that will bedevil RP-US relations even after a decision on his appeal is finally rendered. If he is acquitted there will be hell to pay from the anti-VFA/anti-US and women’s rights groups; if he is convicted will the US really let him go quietly to Bilibid? Although conviction or acquittal is at heart a legal issue (rape is, after all, a public crime), there is no getting away from the political and social maelstrom of this tragic episode.

Pacquiao’s case, on the other hand, is a travesty. It’s about ratings, power – and money. Elevated to near sainthood with his string of impressive ring victories, Pacquiao took his assumed invincibility a step too far. With his version of “I’m sorry” on a tele-press conference from Los Angeles where he is training, Pacquiao blamed ABS-CBN, blamed their lawyers, and even indirectly blamed Solar Sports, hinting at “breach of contract” that made him go looking for a new partner in the first place. He said he was “wiser now than yesterday,” and next time “will really think it over and not get carried away by emotions” – although I do not think emotion was the main factor for this fiasco.

There is no tragedy here, and we should really just heed all the exhortations to “put this behind us” and “move on.” I think we will survive the social consequences – the many ordinary folk who idolized him and were deeply disappointed by what he did and how he behaved – especially if Pacquiao wins his May 2 bout. If – dare I even say it?–– he doesn’t, that would be a different kind of travesty altogether.