What a December!

MANILA
It’s been a December that will not be easy to forget by Filipinos.
A couple of weeks before Christmas, a devastating typhoon leveled many parts of Mindanao in southern Philippines. And a very controversial bill on reproductive health passed through a needle’s eye in the Congress after many months of bitter debate.
In sports, international boxing icon Manny Pacquiao fell flat on his face in an unthinkable defeat, while rising star Nonito Donaire avenged Pacquiao’s loss to Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez by knocking out his own Mexican opponent, Jorge Arce a week later.
No one will blame Filipinos if they’re still reeling from such earth-shaking events. To top it all, we had to contend with our usual longest Christmas celebration on Earth.
But, just before Christmas, another piece of smiley news.
Typhoon “Pablo” ravaged many communities in Mindanao, particularly Compostela Valley and Davao del Norte. Even though both national and local government authorities had acted early to warn residents and to move them to safe ground, the typhoon’s devastation was so fierce and widespread that it left more than 1,000 people dead. The number of casualties would have been much higher had the government not acted decisively. Still, many people didn’t heed government calls for evacuation promptly, resulting in the tragic deaths.
Whole communities were flattened by the typhoon’s wrath. Infrastructure was heavily damaged, with bridges and roads destroyed almost completely. Crops were wasted and many farm animals were killed. Literally, whole villages simply disappeared from the face of the earth, replaced by boulders, sand and water. Criminal over logging in the area’s forests exacerbated the damage wrought by the deluge, with cut logs tumbling down on wide swaths of residential zones as well as farmlands.
It will take a long time for the survivors to get back on their feet again.
At both houses of the Congress here in Manila, equally fierce and bitter debate raged on in December. The fiery issue was a reproductive health (RH) bill that, among other things, would provide to women, especially the poor among them, free advice and medicines to help them make choices in the number of children they produce and how to space them. Optional sex education will also be taught to schoolchildren aged 10 years and older.
The Catholic Church opposed the bill rabidly, as well as a number of politicians in both houses of the legislature, on the ground that the law would make it easy for women to get an abortion (even though the bill is clear about not allowing abortion, which is illegal in the Philippines). Opponents of the RH bill also feared that the law would lead to promiscuity among young women and to divorces.
The congressional debates became so heated; they lead to hurt feelings among the legislators. For example, the Senate President even returned the Christmas presents sent by the two women co-sponsors of the RH bill, which hurt the latter’s feelings as this was seen as a breach of parliamentary, or even just common, courtesy. At the Lower House, the debates were equally intense and divisive.
Leaders of the Catholic Church mobilized their forces to pressure legislators from voting for the bill. Cardinals, bishops and rank-and-file priests were openly vocal in their opposition. This breached the constitutionally mandated separation of Church and State, which prohibits each side from meddling in the other’s business, but nobody seemed to care or mind.
The moment of truth came when the bill was up for voting in its second reading at the House. The session hall was full of tension, and of both opponents and boosters of the bill. High officials of the Church and large numbers of lay leaders were in attendance, the more to add pressure on the congressmen. Delaying tactics were employed by the bill’s opponents. When the vote was finally done, the bill squeaked through with a vote of 113-104 in favor of the bill. On third and final reading, the vote was 133-76, showing that the antis even lost some of their supporters.
At the Senate, the final debate was also tense and suspenseful. The vote there on second reading was 13-6 to support the bill.
A bicameral committee then fused the two versions into a single one that would now be sent to President Benigno Aquino III for his signature. The bill will be signed for sure by Mr. Aquino, who had certified it as urgent, making its enactment a certainty. By the time you’re reading this, the bill may have already been signed by the President.
In the midst of all this drama, an unexpected drama of a different sort further dampened the Filipinos’ Christmas spirit. Manny Pacquiao, the eight-division champion and until then the pound-for-pound king of the boxing world, went to Las Vegas to shut Juan Manuel Marquez’s mouth up for claiming that he (Marquez) had won their previous three fights (the first was a draw, the next two were won by Pacquiao).
Alas, Marquez had other plans.
Pacquiao had planned to knock out Marquez early. Marquez, as Filipino boxing aficionados here and abroad know, had been the most difficult of all of Pacquiao’s rivals. A skilled counter-puncher, Marquez had been a puzzle for Pacquiao. Their previous fights had been drawn-out battles, thus giving Marquez the notion, or delusion, that he was the winner of those fights.
Pacquiao was winning the fight. At the end of Round 5, he was ahead by one point on the judges’ scorecards (I had Marquez ahead by the same margin, but what do I know?!). Toward the end of Round 6 the two went for a brawl. With only one second left in the round, at 2:59, Pacquiao got careless. Marquez took advantage of the momentary lapse in Pacquiao’s defense. As Pacquaio lunged, Marquez unleashed a killer short right to Pacquiao’s exposed face. Pacquiao was out even before his face hit the canvas. The crowd was stunned. Here in the Philippines, the whole nation sunk into a collective gasp of disbelief. Pacquiao had been vanquished.
A week later, the thinking boxer, Nonito Donaire, traveled to Houston, Texas, for an appointment with champion Jorge Arce, also of Mexico as Pacquiao’s conqueror, Marquez. This match would take an added significance for Filipinos because of the nationalities of the protagonists.
The Philippines and Mexico have had a long history of producing world-class boxers who often fought one another over the years with spine-tingling and face-rearranging results. And, of course, the two countries have had a long historical link because of the famous galleon trade between them during Spanish times. The iconic patron saint of many Filipinos, the Black Nazarene of Quiapo (Manila), a statue of Jesus Christ that came from Mexico on one of the galleons, got burned during the ocean voyage, thus the name “Black Nazarene.”
The night of Saturday, December 15 in Houston (Sunday morning in the Philippines), had the seasonal nip in the air that announces the Yuletide. But inside the Toyota Center arena the air was heavy with anticipation and hyped-up animosity among the spectators. The boxers, surely, were also tense and aware of the added significance of their coming fight. A fellow Mexican had knocked out a fellow Filipino the previous week. It was time for either revenge or affirmation of superiority in the ring.
The result didn’t take long to come. As the third round was closing, Donaire (who had knocked Arce down earlier) closed in on an already groggy Arce and delivered a savage left to the reeling champion’s chin, putting him down on his back. The referee didn’t have to count Arce out, there was no need. As a strange coincidence, the knockout occurred at 2:59 of the round, the same time of the round when Pacquiao got KO’d by Marquez. The revenge had been done, victory was sweet.
Especially for Donaire, who now can command higher purses for his future bouts. He reportedly got $1 million for his effort that evening in Houston, compared to Pacquiao’s usual fee in the eight-digit stratosphere.
Pacquiao came home here humbled but still raring to fight some more. The time-stopping motorcades around Manila and other key cities didn’t take place this time for Manny, but most Filipinos still welcomed him wholeheartedly, albeit subdued.
In contrast, Donaire, who had just come home at this writing, seems to be the new darling of the media. He, of course, deserves the attention, if not yet the adulation accorded previously to the phenomenal Pacquiao. But Donaire, who is said to be more cerebral as a boxer than the instinctive Pacquiao, will surely have his time. (By the way, Pacquiao is still a champion as his bout with Marquez was a non-title fight.)
And finally, just before Christmas, Miss Philippines Janine Tugonan was adjudged first runner-up in the Miss Universe contest held in Las Vegas, making her the second most beautiful woman in the world.
What a December it’s been, full of action and excitement! But, sadly, also of devastation, heartache and loss. Good thing the Filipinos still had Christmas, their most favorite holiday, to save the season.
Happy New Year to all, happy BALITA reading in 2013!