Is Manny Pacquiao now richer than Mang Inasal's Injap?

“I want the people of the Philippines to be happy, even if they have nothing.” MANNY PACQUIAO

By Alex P. Vidal

Publisher Lemuel Fernandez estimated the worth of Manny Pacquiao to be somewhere between P5 to P10 billion.

“I think he is now richer than Edgar Sia,” said Lemuel, who watched Pacquiao steamroll Shane Mosley via 12-round unanimous decision at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on May 7, 2011.

Sia, also known as “Injap”, is the founder of the Mang Inasal food chain.

Sia’s fortune skyrocketed when he sold 70 percent of Mang Inasal Phils. to Jollibee Foods Corp. for P3 billion in 2010.

As chief executive officer of the Injap Investment, Inc., Injap Land Corporation (DoubleDragon Properties, Corp.), and People’s Hotel Corporation, Sia is considered as one of the richest Filipino-Chinese businessmen in the country who is below 50 years old today.

Pacquiao is expected to get more or less P4 billion in his “Fight of the Century” battle against Floyd Mayweather Jr in Las Vegas on May 2.

Like most pugilists, Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs) doesn’t have a college degree.

As an out-of-school-youth in Gen. Santos City in early 90’s, boxing was his only way out of dire straits.

In fact, after a brief stint in the amateur ranks as “Kid Kulafu” (his first moniker), poverty pushed him to turn professional on January 25, 1995, winning by a four-round decision in a light-flyweight aperitif against patsy Edmund Enting Ignacio (8-24-3, 1 KO) in Sablayan, Mindoro Occidental.

INTELLIGENCE

“But he possesses a practical intelligence not found in any other athletes in this generation,” Fr. Marlon Beof told this writer in a private residence in Las Vegas, Nevada two days after Pacquiao snatched the WBC super-featherweight title on a 12-round split decision against Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40 KOs) on March 15, 2008.

Beof, 46, a New York-based Roman Catholic priest, celebrated a thanksgiving Mass to Pacquiao the morning after the event in Pacquiao’s last 10 fights.

He discovered that Pacquiao has a special gift aside from his boxing skills because of the way the boxer-cum-congressman analyzes issues and events during their conversation.

“Yes, he did not have a formal education. But God has given him a special knowledge that most of us don’t have. He can analyze; he can decipher complex issues even if he can’t express it in English,” explained Beof.

Beof’s observation was sustained by Gen. Santos City-based businessman Adriano “Rey” Golingan, Pacquiao’s wedding godfather and civilian spiritual adviser.

“Pacquiao is spiritually-attached to God. He has a special gift, the kind of practical intelligence not found inside the classroom; the kind of knowledge that he did not learn from the books,” swore Golingan, owner of the gym where Pacquiao first trained as an amateur in 1991.

PREDICTED

Golingan had predicted Pacquiao’s major victories against dangerous opponents like Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Miguel Angel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, and Joshua Clottey.

“It appears that Pacquiao is always being guided spiritually; that it’s almost impossible for him to lose because of his attachment to God,” added Golingan, who led the evening prayers inside Pacquiao’s hotel suite either in the Mandalay Bay or in the MGM Grand.

International promoter Rex “Wakee” Salud, 58, Pacquiao’s Cebu partner and fellow cockfighting aficionado, described Pacquiao, 36, as “a ring genius.”

“It’s not hard to place a bet on him,” said Salud, former manager of ex-IBF world flyweight champion Gerry Penalosa. “His victory has always been crystal clear even before the duel in the ring. He is a ring genius and nobody can match his talent in the entire planet.”

On June 23, 2008, five days before his 9-round demolition of David Diaz for the WBC lightweight diadem, Pacquiao made the final announcement before the eight-vehicle entourage romped off to Las Vegas from the Wild Card gym in Hollywood.

“Pababain ang lahat ng container ng tubig na naka expose sa sunlight. Hindi maganda sa health natin kung uminom tayo ng mineral water na naka expose sa sunlight (let’s leave behind all the containers of mineral waters that were exposed in the sunlight. It’s not good for our health if we drink them),” Pacquiao ordered.

The caravan left L.A. without bringing several bottles of mineral water.

MEMORY

Pacquiao can also retain in his memory the first names of those who accompanied him regularly in his travel to Las Vegas even if he met them only briefly.

He is generous to most of those who come to him for his signature and for some pennies.

If Pacquiao can’t immediately remember a person’s name, he acknowledges that he met that person in the past and recognizes the person only in the face by flashing a smile.

Inside his hotel suite, Pacquiao personally distributed the electronic cards that served as keys to the rooms of members of Team Pacquiao.

On April 27, 2009 inside his suite in Mandalay Bay, Pacquiao handed to me the electronic card for the room of the four accredited journalists from the Philippines.

“O ito ang para sa mga photographers (This key is for the room of the photographers),” Pacquiao said, referring to the four accredited journalists: Abac Cordero of Philippine Star, Nick Giongco of Manila Bulletin, Roy Luarca of Philippine Daily Inquirer, and this writer then of Philboxing.com.