Farewell ex-WBF champ William Magahin

“You endure what is unbearable, and you bear it. That is all.”

―Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Princess

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

FORMER World Boxing Federation (WBF) welterweight champion William Magahin has died in Iloilo City in the Philippines. He was 56.

The news was confirmed by another former boxing champion Revero “Gentle Giant” Santillan, who received the information from Magahin’s former wife Agnes.

“Rest well William Magahin,” Agnes wrote in a Facebook post September 25.

Santillan, 47, formerly based in Japan as boxing trainer, said Magahin visited him in his boxing training camp in Barangay Tacas, Jaro, Iloilo City five days before he passed away.

“He promised to visit me again. He left saying he needed to have more sleep because he was driving a taxi,” said Santillan, who won the Oriental Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) 147 lb crown four times in a checkered fistic career in 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007.

Magahin, an Amerasian, grew up in Olongapo City and was adopted by Negros-born businessman Roland, who ran and lost for Iloilo City mayor in 2025.

Under the tutelage of the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP), Magahin represented the Philippines in the 4th World Junior Championships from June 26 to July 5, 1987, in Havana, Cuba.

He turned professional by knocking out Eric Togana in a six-round aperitif in Manila on July 11, 1989. After one month, he defeated Geronimo Magallanes via 8-round unanimous decision at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City on August 19, 1989.

Magahin suffered his first loss as a professional in his third fight, a 10-round non-title duel against journeyman Jessie Solis at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum in Manila in October 1989.

After racking up three successive wins against Bernabe Aliping (January 1990), Armando Andales (May 1990), Boy Ligas (July 1990 for the Philippine lightweight championship), Magahin suffered his second defeat in a rematch against Solis at the Pasay City Sports Complex on December 30, 1990, and yielded his Philippine lightweight belt.

 

REVENGE

 

In their third meeting, Magahin decisioned Solis in 12 rounds to win back his RP diadem at the University of San Agustin gym in Iloilo City on May 25, 1991.

The 5 feet and 9 inches tall black fighter who spoke fluent Hiligaynon rose to fame when he brutally knocked out the fading former WBC junior lightweight champion Rolando Navarette (56-15-3, 33 KOs) in the sixth canto at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City on July 31, 1991. Navarette retired after the cruel defeat.

The win earned Magahin a trip to Tokyo, Japan where he was bludgeoned by then undefeated and future WBC lightweight champion Miguel Angel “Tokyo Santa” Gonzalez (51-5-1, 40 KOs), in a scary fourth round disposal at the Kurakuen Hall on August 19, 1991.

Magahin (18-7-1, 12 KOs) won the WBF 147 lb championship by 12-round unanimous decision against Australian Jeff Malcolm (100-27-11, 36 KOs) at the Iloilo Sports Complex in Iloilo City on March 25, 1995.

In his first defense, Magahin, known as “The Black Mamba”, defended the title against Erwin Villaver (14-8-1, 12 KOs), a Fil-Am from Hawaii, in another 12-round unanimous decision at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila on May 27, 1995.

He successfully kept the WBF diadem then headed by Tennessee-based Ron Scalf by whipping by TKO another Australian Brad Mogeridge in Bacolod City on August 5, 1995.

In his third defense, Magahin traveled to Medan, North Sumatra in Indonesia and yielded his crown to local favorite Suwito Lagola on points on October 21, 1995.

The Iloilo buzzsaw, a southpaw, tried to regain the crown but was TKO’d by Texas knockout artist Jaime Lerma (25-8, 18 KOs) in the 10th stanza at the Ninoy Aquino Staium in Manila on January 20, 1996.

He retired after the debacle.

 

 

 

Avoiding UN

“Maybe I made a mistake yesterday, but yesterday’s me is still me. I am who I am today, with all my faults. Tomorrow I might be a tiny bit wiser, and that’s me, too. These faults and mistakes are what I am, making up the brightest stars in the constellation of my life. I have come to love myself for who I was, who I am, and who I hope to become.”

―Kim Namjoong

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

I NORMALLY walked toward the United Nations (UN) headquarters on 405 East 42nd Street from the First Avenue at 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan even without the General Assembly scheduled every third week of September.

I worked nearby from 2021 until 2023.

No longer this year. In fact, I avoided it on September 24, 2026, the second day of the high-level General Debate of the 81st session of the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA81), which officially started on September 8, 2026.

Manhattan—Midtown and Lower—has been my regular and most favorite place to rendezvous when I am off duty. It will not change.

At the corner of First Avenue and East 39the Street, the New York Police Department (NYPD) arrested and detained over 30 to 100 demonstrators protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just after 12 p.m. September 24.

Organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, hundreds of demonstrators wearing matching white T-shirts (“Fund people not bombs”) blocked traffic in a planned act of civil disobedience during Bibi’s U.N. General Assembly address.

 

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Among those arrested and detained were high-profile personalities including Emmy-winning actor Hannah Einbinder, actor Susan Sarandon, and New York political figures.

The protest outside the UN, one of several this week against the embattled Israeli prime minister, drew hundreds of Jewish, Palestinian, Iranian and Lebanese New Yorkers, among others, as well as several elected officials and candidates in the November election, and a number of celebrities.

Protesters chanted slogans like “Let Gaza live” and “the whole world is watching.”

Official vehicles heading to the U.N. were diverted as protesters sat down in the middle of the street for more than an hour, unfurling banners that called to “end the genocide” and flying a kite reading “Free Palestine” – a reference to Israel’s threat earlier this year that it would target Palestinian children flying kites, organizers said.

According to The Guardian, Netanyahu delivered an inflammatory address to the United Nations, decrying what he said was a global anti-Jewish conspiracy and swatting aside criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza, as he faces down international isolation and a fight for political survival in upcoming elections in Israel.

“As planned protests erupted on the streets of New York City, Netanyahu took aim at critics of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the international media, regional leaders such as Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leftwing commentator Hasan Piker and the New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani in an address that doubled as a stump speech to ignite his rightwing base for the elections,” The Guardian reported.

 

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Invoking his late brother Yonatan Netanyahu, a commando killed in a 1976 raid to free Israeli hostages from a hijacked airliner in Entebbe, Uganda, Bibi repeated the lines: “We are going to win. We have no other choice.”

Inspired by a Palestinian call, dozens of delegated walked out of the General Assembly Hall of the U.N. headquarters as Netanyahu took the stage, leading a speaker to pound his gavel and announce: “I’m calling for order in the hall.”

Palestinian representatives organizing diplomatic missions to bring staff for a planned walkout of Netanyahu’s speech said they wanted to “send a clear message to Netanyahu and his government that no one is willing to aid, abet, or be complicit in its genocide and war crimes and illegal occupation, which all peace-loving states and peoples demand must come to an end”.

“If there are any other moral cowards in the audience, I urge them to walk out,” Netanyahu said before launching into his prepared remarks.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)

 

 

Philippines in the UN: Aren’t we ‘financially unhealthy?’

 “An economic system which can only expand or expire must be false to all that is human.”

―Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

IF the Philippines is deemed as “financially unhealthy” by economic analysts, why was it chosen to launch the UN Group of Friends (GoF) for Financial Health together with Peru and Kenya during the ministerial luncheon at the sidelines of the High-Level Week of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA81) in New York City September 22?

The launching of the Philippines’ UN team up with Peru and Kenya came a day after the South China Morning Post reported that the Philippines’ rise to upper-middle-income status “has done little to shield the country from short-term pressures weighing on growth: sluggish public spending, delayed infrastructure, high living costs and the fallout from investigations into alleged irregularities in flood control projects.”

Those strains have left the Philippines looking like a regional laggard, reported the South China Morning Post.

“Bank of America is forecasting gross domestic product growth of 2.5 per cent for 2026 – tying with Thailand for the slowest pace in the region – even as it raised its overall Asean growth forecast to 5 per cent, up from 4.7 per cent at the end of the second quarter,” it added.

 

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Quoting Bank of America’s September report, the paper said, “The Philippines is expected to see a sharp slowdown relative to 2025.”  The bank reportedly compared that to Singapore’s projected 5.1 per cent growth, Malaysia’s 5.2 per cent, Indonesia’s 5.3 per cent and Vietnam’s 8.2 per cent, according to the paper.

As other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations surge ahead, the paper stressed, “the growing growth disparity raises serious questions about whether Manila can convert its long-term strengths – a young population, a robust consumer base and an expanding services sector – into the growth momentum seen elsewhere in the region.”

It added: “Modest consumption gains and a bottoming-out of investment spending could support limited growth in the second half of the year, Bank of America said, while targeted subsidies for vulnerable consumers and the transport sector could cushion the impact of energy shocks.”

Quoting Filipino economist and market strategist Jonathan Ravelas, the paper said, “Compared with its Asean peers, the Philippines is currently facing a relative slowdown.”

“Countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia are benefiting more from manufacturing expansion, supply-chain relocation and stronger foreign direct investment inflows.”

 

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The Philippine economy had been “heavily dependent on consumption and that engine has been tempered by higher borrowing costs, elevated living costs and slower public spending”, Ravelas told the paper.

During the UN meeting. Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Ma. Theresa P. Lazaro represented met with Her Majesty Queen Maxima of the Royal House of the Netherlands, who had a working lunch with the Group of Friends for Financial Health, an informal partnership of countries co-chaired by Kenya and the Philippines working to promote financial health.

According to the DFA, the GoF will bring together Member States that have shown strong leadership on financial health, which refers to the extent to which households can manage their day-to-day finances, withstand financial shocks, and build long-term financial security and confidence. 

During the launch, the DFA website reported that Lazaro shared that advancing financial health is a priority for the Philippine Government and emphasized that financially healthy households are a foundation for stronger and more resilient economies.

Lazaro said: “The Group speaks to a simple but important idea: that inclusive growth and national resilience must ultimately translate into resilience in people’s everyday lives.”

 

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The launch of the GoF also provided an initial opportunity for the co-chairs and prospective members to exchange national experiences and approaches to strengthening households’ financial health and resilience, added the DFA website.

The GoF will work closely with the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health (SGSA GoF), Her Majesty Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, in promoting greater awareness and understanding of financial health, and advancing the concept within relevant UN and intergovernmental processes.

Queen Maxima had earlier presented her annual UNSGSA report to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and have bilateral meetings with government representatives and various organizations in her capacity as the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Financial Health (UNSGSA).

The theme for the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 2026) is “Restoring trust, managing transformation: a United Nations that delivers for all.”

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)

 

 

 

Ricah Trinidad, Hermie Rivera asked me to sue Freddie Roach

“I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens.”

―Woody Allen

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

I MET the late sports journalist and columnist Ricardo “Recah” Trinidad for the first time in Las Vegas on December 3, 2008.

It started with a call I received from the then 65-year-old Philippine sports journalism icon while I was inside the hotel room intended for accredited reporters covering the Manny Pacquiao vs Oscar De La Hoya 12-round welterweight tussle dubbed “Dream Match” at the MGM Grand on December 6, 2008.

“Hello? Is this Alex? Alex Vidal? Si Ricah ito. Ricah Trinidad of Philippine Daily Inquirer,” the caller enthused. “Sabi ni Hermie (Rivera) ikaw daw ang may hawak ng susi sa room.” (Hermie said you’re the one in charge of the room key.)

“Yes, sir. This is Alex Vidal. Where are you po?” I answered.

“Nandito ako sa lobby (of the MGM Grand). May bakante pa ba diyan? Sa floor lang ako matutulog, don’t worry,” Trinidad added. (I’m here in the lobby. Is there a space for me inside the room? I’ll sleep on the floor, don’t worry.)

When Trinidad went upstairs, I offered him the bed, a custom 14-inch pillow-top hybrid mattress. “No. Dito lang ako sa floor. Marami na kayo at late ako eh,” the veteran Filipino sports columnist insisted.

“Ako na lang sa floor,” I asserted. “Nakakahiya po sa inyo.”

 

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Trinidad refused, insisting he was “comfortable” on the floor.

Even if Hermie Rivera, then 69, a San Francisco-based boxing analyst and manager of former WBA bantamweight king Luisito Espinosa, followed upstairs and goaded him to occupy the bed, Trinidad stood his ground: he belonged on the floor, the veteran writer asserted.

Trinidad, who earlier wrote critical stories about Pacquiao, probably knew he was outside the kulambo, so to speak.

He felt Team Pacquiao wouldn’t accommodate him in the MGM Grand thus he asked for his kumpare Rivera’s “intercession” to join us in the room. Nobody from Team Pacquiao said Trinidad wasn’t allowed to join us.

How did I become a key holder? Two days earlier (December 1, 2008), Team Pacquiao arrived in a caravan in the glitzy Nevada city shortly after 9 o’clock in the evening after a four-hour drive from Los Angeles.

After dinner inside Pacquiao’s MGM Grand suite, the then 29-year-old eight-time world champion distributed more than a dozen room key cards, valid for a week, to members of the caravan, including the accredited sportswriters from the Philippines.

Pacquiao handed to me the room key card for the “photographers” (that’s how he called press people who accompanied his team then). The room was for three other sports writers from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Manila Bulletin, Philippine Star, and yours truly.

Rivera, who had difficult time to join us, stayed with us, nevertheless.

Meanwhile, while inside the hotel room, Trinidad and Rivera discussed the incident where Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s famed trainer, scolded and pushed me over an article I wrote when he saw me outside the elevators of the MGM Grand on July 25, 2008, or five months earlier.

 

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The incident between me and Roach happened a day before the 12-round WBA welterweight title duel between Antonio Margarito and Miguel Angel Cotto at the MGM Grand on July 26, 2008. I was accredited to cover the event.

Both Trinidad and Rivera had contacted Gregorio “Sheriff” Asuncion, Pacquiao’s former bodyguard, in Covina, California to refer the incident involving me and Roach to a lawyer in Los Angeles.

Asuncion, then 51, had earlier filed an unlimited civil case suit before the Superior Court of Los Angeles against Roach for allegedly mauling Asuncion inside Roach’s owned Wildcard Boxing Gym in Hollywood, Los Angeles on October 20, 2008.

I learned about the incident involving Roach and Asuncion from Texas-based pediatrician Allan Recto, who called me to relay the news when I was in Iloilo City in the Philippines sometime in November 2008.

Meanwhile, lawyer Robert H. McNeill, Jr. of Ivie, McNeill & Wyatt, an LA-based law firm, contacted me while I was on a train in San Diego, California sometime in June 2009. And the rest was history.

Rivera died on January 15, 2016 at 77, while McNeill Jr. died in April 2016 at 75.

Trinidad, on the other hand, died on September 13, 2026 or two years after the death of his sports journalist son Chino. He was 83.

 (The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)