Manny Pacquiao is going through his throwing motion at Yankee Stadium. With easy deliberation, he shows off the form he says he perfected playing elementary school baseball in the dirt-poor southern Philippines before boxing took him over completely. His shoulder slips back, his torso pitches smoothly forward, left hand and arm torquing an imaginary ball into the depths of the air-conditioned players’ cafeteria, where he is waiting to take the field for an announcement. The diamond stud in his ear catches the light.
The first time a Filipino was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine was in 1986 when then PhilippinePresident Corazon C. Aquino was declared as the magazine’s WOMAN OF THE YEAR!
This time around, the TIME Magazine cover carries the blurb, “THE GREAT HOPE“, in reference to Manny Pacquiao as the Filipino’s icon for a better life, a better tomorrow.
Bariles personally met Ishaan Tharoor, one of the two writers of the article, when he flew in to General Santos City during the first week of October to interview some people who knew the Pacman.
The Indian writer had earlier asked an audience with GenSan City Mayor Pedro Acharon, Jr.Bariles received him first at the mayor’s office since the mayor was still on a meeting. Later on, he joined the two gentlemen while the interview was being conducted at the chief executive’s conference room.
The article which Tharoor co-write is entitled “THE MEANING OF MANNY“, and chronicled Manny Pacquiao’s rise from poverty to his present status. It dealt not only with him but the people surrounding him, including Freddy Roach, Mike Konch, his mother Dionisia, Governor Chavit Singson, among other people.
