The boys from Dadiangas.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Carlos Isagani T. Zarate

THE EUPHORIC multitude that greeted the homecoming of boxing icon Manny Pacquiao last Thursday in General Santos City capped the weeklong tribute for the "peoples' champion." Pacquiao's Nov. 16 victory over the highly rated world featherweight king Marco Antonio Barrera has put GenSan in the world map once again. It was also a welcome respite, although momentary, from the scandals and political brawls brought by the early onset of the election season.

My townmates, including children, lined up the streets and cheered as Pacquiao's entourage motored from the airport to City Hall where a fiesta celebration awaited him. There was a great sense of pride that surged through the people of the southern port city popularly known to outsiders as "Dadiangas." For good reason. Aside from the crown and the huge purse that went with his victory, Pacquiao also earned a Congressional Medal of Honor conferred on him by congressional leaders days prior to his homecoming. Not surprisingly, it was mostly the young, the adoring children especially, who began to look up at Pacquiao as the model in making it big to escape poverty.

Last Thursday's sight of the children brought back memories of my own childhood back in the '70s in GenSan, when I and other boys of my generation were, at one point, drawn to the world of boxing.

When I was an 8-year-old boy in 1975, my father gave me two pairs of boxing gloves so I could learn boxing and develop my then lanky build. A homemade punching bag and a makeshift ring were also built in our backyard, where I and my cousins and neighbors flailed away at each other more in youthful abandon.

1975 was also the year of the historic "Thrilla in Manila" fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier at the Araneta Coliseum.