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For the past 17 years, The Filipino Express has provided the Filipino American community the best news, arts and entertainment coverage from around the United States and the Philippines.
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Filipinos celebrate Pacquiao's victory
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Manny Pacquiao celebrates after knocking out Erik Morales, of Mexico during the 10th-round of their super featherweight boxing match, Saturday night, January 21, 2006, in Las Vegas. Pacquiao won on a 10th-round knockout.
(MNSwirephoto)
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MANILA --- Malacañang and the city government of Manila have prepared a grand celebration for returning boxing hero Manny Pacquiao, who arrives on Friday, January 27, after knocking out Mexican ring legend Erik Morales in Las Vegas last Sunday.
However, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo saw no need to declare today a special holiday, as has been suggested by a senator.
Pacquiao is scheduled to arrive at 5 a.m. Friday on a Philippine Airlines flight from Los Angeles. He will meet the President at 10 a.m. at the Palace.
Ermita also praised Pacquiao for volunteering to serve as a negotiator with the escaped leaders of the so-called Magdalo group that staged the Oakwood mutiny three years ago.
In Manila, police announced the deployment of 4,550 uniformed and civilian policemen to secure the visit of Pacquiao to the presidential palace, as well as the motorcade and ticker-tape parade prepared for the boxing champion.
MPD director Chief Supt. Pedro Bulaong said the policemen would also secure Team Pacquiao in Malacañang Palace and Manila City Hall, and accompany him to Quezon City.
Both cities have declared Pacquiao, who hails from General Santos City, as an adopted son.
Bulaong said the security preparations would also ensure the safety of prominent personalities who will meet Pacquiao.
The Pacquiao motorcade will start at Manila City Hall around 10:30 a.m. and will pass through Jones Bridge, Escolta, Plaza Sta. Cruz, Dasmariñas, Quintin Paredes, Reina Regente, Recto, Del Pan, Zaragoza and Road 10.
The motorcade will return to Manila from Quezon City via Nagtahan Bridge, Zamora, Peñafrancia, Pedro Gil and Onyx Street and will culminate at the Dagonoy Market.
The highlight of Pacquiao’s visit in Manila will be a street party at the Plaza Raja Sulayman in Malate, in front of the Baywalk, which will be closed to traffic starting 3 p.m.
Pacquiao’s bout with Morales has become the most watched television event in the Philippines.
According to AGB Nielsen Media Research (Philippines), the rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Erik Morales registered a staggering 59.2 percent rating or 2.073 million households in Metro Manila and urban areas in the provinces of Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite and Rizal.
AGB Nielsen general manager Maya Reforma said the match easily surpassed the previous all-time top rater, the blockbuster soap opera “Rosalinda,” which had a higher rating of 68.1 percent but was equivalent to only 1.486 million households in its July 13, 2000 episode.
In terms of individuals, 5.261 million watched the Pacquiao-Morales rematch versus the 3.788 million for Rosalinda.
The match also registered the highest audience share (which compares program airings during the same time slot) in its time block of 79.5 percent compared to Rosalinda’s 78.3 percent.
AGB Nielsen uses an independent and transparent audience measurement system for its ratings that are used by media planners and advertisers for their transactions.
Filipinos remained glued to their television sets even though ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. and Solar Entertainment Corp. started airing the bout after Pacquiao had already pummeled Morales to the canvas in the 10th round and scored a technical knockout.
Reforma noted that viewership for the match was nearly double the television ratings of Pacquiao’s previous title matches with Morales and Juan Manuel Marquez which scored an identical 33 percent rating. The move by Solar Entertainment, which owns the rights to Top Rank boxing matches in the Philippines, to switch from the state-owned RPN 9 to ABS-CBN 2 for the Pacquiao-Morales rematch proved to be a superlative one.
“The match benefited greatly from the broader coverage of ABS-CBN,” Reforma said.
Meanwhile, Marco Antonio Barrera, the first Mexican boxing great Manny Pacquiao humbled in 2003, has abandoned plans of meeting the champion Filipino fighter in the near future.
With Pacquiao’s masterful demolition of Morales still in everybody’s lips, Barrera announced he had signed up to challenge International Boxing Federation (IBF) lightweight champion Jesus Chavez on March 25.
Barrera, the reigning World Boxing Council and IBF super featherweight, had delayed finalizing the fight with Chavez, saying he wanted to see first what happens to the rematch between his two big rivals.
Apparently, Barrera saw the writing on the wall, and realized that fighting Pacquiao in the immediate future constitutes a career suicide. The Filipino had stopped Barrera in the 11th round of a non-title clash three years ago.
Trainer Freddie Roach, meanwhile, had refused to name a possible opponent for Pacquiao, although American Tim Austin, the former IBF bantam champ, had announced in media releases that he was willing to travel to the Philippines if that is what it takes to snag a fight with the Filipino ring icon.
Roach had hinted that the Filipino superstar may opt to fight next in the Philippines.
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Olongapo City, PHILIPPINES --- The judge presiding over the rape case involving four US servicemen has recalled an arrest warrant against them and deferred further hearings on their case until after the Department of Justice completes its review of a petition by the suspects.
Judge Renato Dilag of Branch 73 said he recalled the warrant because Lance Corporals Daniel Smith, Keith Silkwood, and Daniel Smith; and Staff Sergeant Chad Brian Carpentier, in effect, voluntarily surrendered when they agreed to be left in the Philippines and stay at the US embassy in Manila.
He added that the custody of the suspects by the US embassy was contained in the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which states that primary jurisdiction of American soldiers accused of crimes will be within the US government.
“Since VFA is a treaty, it is already part of the law of the land [the Philippines],” Dilag said.
Defense lawyers have asked for the withdrawal of the warrant, saying they did not want their clients arrested when they appeared in court.
Dilag said he also suspended further hearings pending the decision by the DoJ on a petition for review of the case by the four US soldiers.
He said the DoJ had 60 days to issue a ruling -- either to grant the petition of the US Marines to dismiss their case or to file a motion for their arraignment.
Dilag said if the DoJ would file a motion for the arraignment of the suspects, only then could he set a date for their appearance in court.
At the same time, Dilag denied a motion from Smith’s lawyer to stop the judge from making statements to media.
Silkwood, Smith, Duplantis, and Carpentier have been accused of raping a 22-year-old Filipina in the former American Naval base in Subic on Nov. 1, 2005.
The four, who have denied the charge, have been under US custody since November 2. They were participants of the VFA-sanctioned joint exercises between the US and the Philippine troops.
The US embassy in Manila has invoked the VFA to justify its refusal to surrender the suspects, prompting legislators and militants to demand the abrogation of the bilateral agreement.
On Thursday, January 26, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo agreed to abolish the VFA Commission that oversaw the implementation of the agreement forged in 1999.
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