My radio cohost, Marou Pahati Sarne, sounded excited when she called me up early yesterday morning. I was barely awake when she did, but the way she sounded made me sit up in my bed. “Tito Butch, have you read the column hitting your last column about Noynoy Aquino’s autism? Basahin mo. Mali daw mga sinabi mo [Read it. He says you got it all wrong]!”

I said, with a yawn: “Oh, that’s okay; the Inquirer is increasingly becoming like ABS-CBN, which is unabashedly pro-Noynoy in the current presidential race. It has become a sort of Defender of the Noynoy Faith.” (As a professional journalist, I have long learned that I must be able to take criticisms as much as I can dish them out, provided such criticisms are made without malice.)

In Caritas Manila, where we continue to repack relief goods and provide shelter for families displaced from their flood-ravaged communities, I was surprised to hear youthful voices singing: “For many and different roads/Now converged as one/We stand as witnesses/For both the old and the young/There is a world we know/A world that breaths and hopes/But a world we wish to build still together/With you.” Caritas volunteer youth were practicing “A Season of Grace,” the theme song of the Fifth Asian Youth Day in the Philippines, as they were packing the relief bags.

Today I will dwell on something unusual to me—writing about a personality and certain aspects of the person behind it. Of course, from reading the title of this article, you already know I refer to Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao, the national kamao, our modern hero, the darling of the boxing world, the face on the Time cover, the best fighter Bob Arum has ever seen (according to him), and the national phenomenon.