Flag bearer Cris Aquino on PacMan

Question: Who is Manny Pacquiao? Answer: Who is Manny Pacquiao not? His list of monickers and achievements is getting longer by the day. Best pound-for-pound boxing king, fighter of the Decade, the “biggest little man in the world," newest Filipino national hero, singer, actor, multimedia celebrity, the only athlete with his face on a postage stamp. Last time I checked, he was going to be a columnist for Philboxing.com and Abante. “You will run out of adjectives to describe Manny Pacquiao," said 48-year old businessman Crisostomo Aquino. Cris, as he is commonly called, is the perennial flag-bearer in Pacquiao fights. He also designs the shirts worn by members of Team Pacquiao. His manner is easygoing and friendly. He knows a good PR moment when he sees one. When he first saw Pacquiao way back in 2003 at a fight in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, he knew that he was watching “boxing history." Aquino is a licensed firearms dealer who amassed a large enough fortune to become the owner of the posh and controversial Boracay West Cove resort in the province of Aklan. People have christened it the “Pacquiao resort" because Manny was seen visiting Aquino there. He denied that his resort is sitting on top of endangered coral reefs and noted that his critics are probably just envious of his position. And it is a privileged one, since the popular pugilist assigned him to be the flag-bearer for all his fights. “Manny is a very superstitious guy. Kung ano ang sinimulan ... Maganda naman ang record ko," referring to the wins Manny has chalked up ever since Aquino started carrying his flag during the boxing fights. Aquino shrugs off criticisms, including the one raised when he made a neck-cutting motion or “execution song" as he calls it, to Pacquiao’s Ghananian opponent Joshua Clottey. “I don’t want to carry my own chair. I just want history to judge me kung sino ako." Aquino is the youngest child of San Juan-based businessman Leonardo and Josefina, owners of Leonardo’s supermarket and Leonardo’s lechon. He was reared and trained in the local palengke. He buys a lot of Pacquiao-related merchandise to give away as gifts, and once spent $5000 in a previous Pacquiao bout. He coined the word “Pac Man" which he said is just the reverse of Manny Pacquiao’s name, and also refers to the animated character PacMan that eats up everybody. Manny Pacquiao’s name, he avers, is rife with symbolism. Manny is synonymous to money, he continued, and Pacquiao sounds of course like “pakyaw" which is a Filipino word that means “to monopolize." The boxing champion, Aquino says, is “the only person I know na hindi marunong magsabi ng ‘no’." He said some people ask for reimbursement from Manny, even when they can afford it. Ever the consummate businessman, Aquino is a diplomatic and skillful PR man. He will not contradict people who falsely claim affinity to Manny. “Ang tendency ng ibang Filipino is to take advantage of his kindness. People tend to use and abuse Manny. He’s a very intelligent person. He knows very well if he’s being used but he just smiles, even though some of his personnel cheat and steal from him. He knows that and still he smiles," Aquino observes. “Alam nila, iiyakan lang nila si Manny. Manny just looks at them, parang patawad na iyun ... ‘cause maybe he is a true Christian, and that’s why the Lord blesses him so much," he continues. Aquino said Manny spent more than P220 million solicited from different sources during his candidacy in 2007, “tapos talagang hindi nakarating iyung tulong niya sa tao." Ultimately, despite the widely reported jockeying among the various teams that surround Pacquiao, “everybody wishes that Manny will have a happy ending," concluded Aquino. – Jacqueline Co/YA, GMANews.TV