Worl Boxing Titan Manny Pacquiao, who’s prepping up for the Pacquiao-Marquez III Fight is featured not only by Esquire Magazine Philippines in its maiden issue (read about it HERE) but by another iconic American magazine, which is no less than PLAYBOY Magazine in its November 2011 US edition.
Playboy Magazine even has this blurb on its cover: Training with the Champ, In the Jungle with Manny Pacquiao. (See below.)
In this Playboy Magazine issue, Manny Pacquiao is profiled by a writer named Kevin Cook who accompanied the Congressman while hobnobbing with his constituents in Sarangani, relaxing in a GenSan coffee shop (which the writer misidentified as “Starbucks“) and training in Baguio City with Freddie Roach.
Cook writes sardonically, especially in describing Pacquiao’s surroundings and the people around him, and the circumstances leading to his victory in politics. There is nothing here about Manny’s rise to fame that has not already been written by other writers but Cook spins an amusing, unapologetic style that is his own. His notes on Manny’s lovely wife Jinky are hilarious and the tidbit that the Champ goes sexless for 21 days before a fight, is a gem!
What he does not understand however is the reason why Manny Pacquiao lost in his first try to run for Congress in the first District of South Cotabato. Thus he writes: “Still, he lost to the incumbent, an entrenched politician who is said to have bought the election for the going rate: a bag of rice or 100 Philippine pesos (about $2) per vote.” – relying on something from the rumor mill which is rather unfair on then Congressman & now GenSan Mayor Darlene Antonino-Custodio who won handily over Manny that time.
But then, that’s how some foreign writers are. They come here for a few days, live with us and think that they know more about Philippine politics than we do. Just ask our good friend writer and blogger Edwin Espejo.
To read more about Playboy’s Manny Pacquiao feature, please click here.
