Manny Pacquiao and Other Things Wrong with Da Pinoy Mentality

The recent brouhaha with the people’s champ Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao has stirred quite a bit of trouble for him and the world of LGBTQs. AS it stands, international LGBTQ communities are now pushing for the withdrawal of some sports brands from sponsoring him for his homophobic remark.

Though Pacquiao has given a ‘sincere’ apology, most of those who called him out didn’t buy it, and for good reasons, too.

Before we begin this tirade, I must first set one thing straight: I will not tell you my sexual orientation as I believe it is irrelevant and is only a mere label. But should you insist that I label myself sexually, then I sexually identify myself as an Attack Helicopter. Ever since I was a boy I dreamed of soaring over the oilfields dropping hot sticky loads on disgusting foreigners. People say to me that a person being a helicopter is Impossible and I'm f*cking retarded but I don't care, I'm beautiful. I'm having a plastic surgeon install rotary blades, 30 mm cannons and AMG-114 Hellfire missiles on my body. From now on I want you guys to call me "Apache" and respect my right to kill from above and kill needlessly. If you can't accept me you're a heliphobe and need to check your vehicle privilege. Thank you for being so understanding.

Now, with that old internet joke aside, let’s get to the main point.

To be fair with Manny Pacquiao, I would say that it’s perfectly alright for him to say that he doesn’t agree with same sex marriage. That is perfectly understandable since, after all, it’s his personal belief and we’re living in a democratic country. Freedom of speech however has its price and things went awry for him when he claimed that LGBTQs are “worse than animals.”

He did apologize though for hurting some feelings but that he stands firm in his belief that homosexuality is unnatural, he is merely stating what the Bible says, and that he is against same sex marriage.

Now, let’ get things in perspective. With Pacquiao’s apologists claiming that what he said was right: I will have to agree. Technically, Pacquiao is right since the Bible (particularly Leviticus) claims: “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.”

The funny thing here is, with Pacquiao giving his apology, his apologists in turn claim that they themselves do not condemn the LGBTQs. However, they still commend Pacquiao for his supposed “bravery” for merely telling the world what the popular opinion of Filipinos is regarding the LGBTQ community. Hilarious.

What was the meme again? Oh yeah—“Double standards. Double standards everywhere.”

Surely you cannot claim that you accept people but think that they are worse than animals, do you? The problem with the mentality of Filipinos is that it LOVES double standards.

Let’s get back to the bible passage. Sure, Filipinos can condemn every homosexual on earth that they can find because, as the bible says, a man lying with another man is an abomination. But lo and behold, there’s another Leviticus passage here. It says: “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”

Pacquiao and Ms. Krista Ranillo

Cue the laugh track and the applause. People, remember the brouhaha about Pacquiao’s “alleged” mistresses: Krista Ranillo and Kat Ordonez? Hope you do. While Pacquiao and his staunch supporters may say what they like against LGBTQs, cheating is cheating.

We remember your sins, Pacquiao. Don’t go all high and mighty and condemn the “sins” of others.

Now here’s where things get funny: While Da Pinoy condemns those whose only “sin” is to love someone of the same sex, they admire, nay, they laud men who have multiple wives or mistresses. This stems from a twisted sense of machismo among Filipino men where the more women they can have sex with, the more “macho” a man is. Kinda like compensating for the fact that we have nothing much going on down the nethers and nothing much up in the brain too.

While cheating on a spouse destroys families, traumatizes children and entails a stigma for the mistress, it is quite fine for a dysfunctional society that the Philippines have. Never mind the long-term consequences of one night stands and extramarital affairs—Macho si Pacquiao e. Or worse: “Eh kasi lalaki.”

Truly, if you are to compare our collective maturity in terms of social acceptance, we are no better than the regressive, ultraconservative countries such as, say, Saudi Arabia (shots fired).

Here you have your common specie of Juan Tanga who spouts that their Jesus taught them to love one another, but end up ultimately not caring for those outside of their social circle. It’s all about da clan, da tribe, da pamili, da clique or what-have-you here. Heavens have mercy on your soul should you not belong to one of those.

We love claiming the love of God when in truth, most of us are scum who only think of himself. We love to spout bible verses but end up cherry-picking the only ones we can use as an excuse to hurt. But I digress.

Getting back on track, here’s where Pacquiao got it wrong again: That there are no homosexual animals. Wildlife scientists have observed animals such as Emperor Penguins mating with the same sex. Mind you, these penguins actually stay with one another and live together. Other animals observed to have homosexual mating patterns include Bonobo Monkeys, chimpanzees, domestic cats, dogs, dolphins, etc. The list goes on, but I’ll leave the researching to you. Read the Biological Exuberance by Bruce Bagemihl and enlighten yourself.

Having said what he said, it seemed that Pacquiao only revealed to his voters that he is not exactly the brightest bulb in the Christmas Tree. The problem, however, is that he might still win as majority of Filipino voters do not value intellect or capability in looking for candidates. What they value most can be summed up into three shallow qualities: (1) Looks; (2) Drama Queeniness; and (3) Popularity.

Never mind that someone running for Senate do not have the intellectual capacity or background for the job, so long as he has brought honor to the country, that he has good intentions or a  nice sob story worthy of your crappy afternoon shows, and that he is popular, he will win.

Truly, intelligence is not the strongest quality of the common Filipino. Being a lawmaker requires that one be objective in crafting laws; that he not be chained or influenced by any sector so that equality and justice is afforded to all.

Now, I don’t have any problem with Pacquiao running—that is to say, if he’s running on an obstacle course. No, he is running for a national position, one where the future of the country depends upon: One that has a very big difference to a boxing ring where errors can only result to a defeat—not a national crisis.

With the 2016 elections looming it cannot be stressed enough that the Philippines need to muster all of its thinking faculties as the status quo is bad enough even without more bozos adding to the fray.

Regardless of his stand on the same sex marriage brouhaha, it’s time for Da Pinoy to think whether a boxing ring is the same as the Senate; whether beating someone else to a pulp is the same to studying, crafting, and understanding laws. With that, I rest my case.

Oh and P.S.:

If your set of beliefs claim that its core is love and tells you to condemn or hate someone, especially just because their only sin is to love, then it’s high time you question it. Mag-isip isip ‘din mga Pinoy, mamaya sinasabihan na kayong magpakamatay, tatango tango lang kayo.