AFTER “knocking out” Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao in the May 14 elections, Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio of South Cotabato wants to grant former professional boxing champions pensions who she said  gave their all for glory of the country yet end up in a sorry state financially after retirement.

Custodio is urging Congress to pass a bill granting retirement incentives and health-care benefits to former professional boxing champions who won world titles.

Custodio filed House Bill 278 seeking to grant a monthly pension of P15,000 to former champions upon reaching 50 years old. Former champions who were incapacitated while pursuing their boxing careers are also covered, Antonino-Custodio said.

While she is proud of the accomplishment of Pacquiao whom she defeated in the congressional race and who almost single-handedly restored the Philippines’ spot on world boxing map and earned lucrative endorsement contracts, Custodio said “many boxers struggle financially when their careers are over.”

Custodio said many former champions ended up pitifully poor. “That is the woe of many past champions,” she lamented.

Custodio said boxers risk their lives and limbs here and in abroad to give honor and glory to the country.

“They go inside the ring armed with the thought that what they do redounds not only to their benefit but to the country as well,” Custodio said, adding that once in the ring—anything could happen.

“Champions are champions and they deserve better than a mere pat on the back or adulation of his countrymen,” she added.

Mind Games

TOKUSHIMA—It’s like selling a jacket in the Sahara.

But of course, it’s long been proven that basketball can still thrive even in a vertically challenged country like the Philippines.

Santo Tomas U’s Cruz leads ’em all

Jervy Cruz is not only leading University of Santo Tomas (UST) in its title-retention drive, he is also boosting his stock as the top collegiate player in the country today.

FIVE of nine voting members of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) board of governors want to give Commissioner Noli Eala—who was disbarred by the Supreme Court last week—a gracious exit.

FILIPINO boxer Rodel Mayol believes his latest loss is just like one of the many trials a boxer must overcome and that his defeat last weekend all the more motivates him to pull out all the stops in aiming for another title bid.

AFTER “knocking out” Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao in the May 14 elections, Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep.

IT was a monumental upset indeed when the outstanding favorite Es Twenty Six succumbed to early pressure and lost to a longshot rival in the 2007 Philracom Lakambini Stakes on Sunday at the San Lazaro Leisure Park (SLLP).