By Manny Pinol
Browsing the net early this morning, my attention was caught by a post in the boxing website bleacherreport which showed a video of an amateur boxer who attacked the referee after he lost in the fight which was stopped prematurely.
I watched the short video clip and having been involved with boxing for so long, I was convinced that the referee stopped the fight without enough basis and seemed to have abused his authority in deciding the outcome of the fight.
What I saw was another proof of the widespread and rampant corruption in amateur boxing competitions.
During the last Asian Games, an Indian woman boxer returned her bronze medal and gave it to a South Korean who won the gold because she felt she was cheated in their fight in the semifinals.
Why am I re-posting this story here?
It is because the boxer’s violent reaction to what he perceived was an act of injustice, while totally condemnable in sports, in my view was a natural human response.
Which brings us to the on-going Senate investigation into allegations that Vice President Jejomar Binay was involved in corruption when he was Mayor of Makati and that he has unexplained wealth.
Although I did not expect a reaction as violent as the losing boxer’s, I really thought that the natural response of Vice President Binay was to rush to the Senate and appear in the investigation to present proofs to belie all the allegations and clear his name.
I expected him to confront his former Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado and tell the latter to his face that he was peddling lies. The same with the two other former members of the Bids and Awards Committee of the Makati City government.
I expected him to bring out the controversial Gerry Limlingan to testify under oath that the Vice President has never been involved in acts of corruption.
I expected him, seeing what the boxer did to the referee, to verbally maul Senators Koko Pimentel, Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes by presenting documentary proofs that he is not corrupt.
But the Vice President’s decision not to directly confront his accusers, not to present Limlingan to clear his name and not to come up with categorical and direct answers to all the accusations, baffles.
It is not a normal human reaction to an act of injustice and oppression.
By the way, the boxer who mauled the referee has been banned from boxing for life but at least he showed his true emotions. He was being honest with himself.
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