Random Drug Testing: Factor on Pacquiao's performances vs. Mayweather

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Manny Pacquiao's coach Freddie Roach said he knew how to expose the ring savvy of Floyd Mayweather, Jr. come the May 2 mega fight.

CAN HE BRAVE IT? The U.S Anti Doping Agency's random drug testing
 will be a third for the Filipino world class pug Manny Pacquiao

“I learned how he works a little bit, so it’s helping out with my strategy with Pacquiao quite a bit,” he said at Wild Card Gym in California.
Roach was in the corner of then Pay Per View’s King the dashing Oscar dela Hoya when he tangled in May 2007 with the then ambitious and smaller but loquacious Mayweather Jr.
He explained that when his ward dela Hoya fought Mayweather they won the first six rounds but lost to Mayweather the last six rounds.
Roach explained that split decision fight that went to Mayweather happened because Oscar stopped using his left incessant jabs and contented himself roughing out Floyd at the ropes.
 Yes Virginia, that roughing and smothering strategies  started from Luis Castillo in their (Mayweather) first fight in April 2002), imitated by Miguel Cotto, Victor Ortiz (with his two hands and head), and Marcus Maidana (in his first fight because their  rematch, just like with Castillo, were lopsided in favor of Floyd who stick, slipped, ran, and accurately counter punched.
"He sets traps and if you walk into the trap  you'll get hit," Mayweather is a master counter puncher and it's clear that a focus of the camp  which is extremely private compared to the past ¬ is to not give him certain openings,"Roach cited.
 He explained that Pacquiao will identify when Mayweather sets the trap so the Filipino Superman - except Superman's handsome face - "won't fall for it" and his face, in my impression, would not be a paper target with the accurate looping left jabs and accurate counter punching of the American.
Many experts in this hurt business said the Mayweather-dela Hoya's tiff was a blue print how to defeat Floyd. They said Oscar should have won that fight.
But here's the rub!

Mayweather was the smaller guy, dela Hoya was the bigger one

When Mayweather challenged dela Hoya, the Golden Boy and then PPV king asked an onerous contract with the former.
Oscar gets 80% of the revenues, Floyd gets the measly 20%. Floyd agreed. Oscar wants to fight Floyd at Junior Middleweight (154 pounds) even Floyd had just fought Carlos Baldomir ( November 2006), Zab Judah (April 2006), and Shamba Mitchell (June 2005) at Welterweight or 147 lbs. Before Mitchelle, Floyd was fighting at 140 lbs or Lightweight.

Extortion Ring in the Media, Gov’t vs. Choppers’ Supplier

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

I suspected that those columnists and reporters of the national dailies in the Philippines who acrimoniously “exposed” and scathingly commented the supposed anomalies on the procurement of the refurbish 21 1967 to 1981 era’s combat helicopters’ UH-1seem to be part of a bigger extortion ring where these alleged conspirators took orders.

UH-1D Super Delta upgraded version while undergoing flight testing at Clark
Air Base, Pampanga. The Fastfin system is visible from this angle.
PHOTO CREDIT. TIM O. MACEREN

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News report said a certain Rhodora Alvarez, a brass at the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Manila, allegedly threatened and attempt to mulct a cut of 15% from the P 1.2 billion contracts the Philippine government entered with supplier Rice Aircraft Services Inc. and Eagle Copters (Rice for brevity).
Rice already reported to the media the extortion attempt.
***
In the following paragraphs I would be citing and answering many the accusations of my colleague in the media, who shot from the hips, without the benefit of clicking Google and reading in Wikipidia on what is the difference of a Bell UH-1H to a UH-1D. They, at the expense of responsible journalism, gun a blazing just condemned the government and Rice on the anomalous, disadvantageous, onerous, Whatchamacallit contract.
1) President Benigno Aquino III was duped into believing and even mentioning in his 2012 State of the Nation Address (SONA) (son of a gun, I was there!) that the 21 helicopters were UH-1H not UH-1D.
My Answer: Records will show that even the president mentioned” UH-1H” (not “UH-1” as media fora espoused) in his SONA what the earlier Invitation to Bid for the acquisition of the 21 refurbished choppers was about “UH-1” which we know could either be UH-1H or the same if not the superior variant’s UH-1D.
Here’s the difference:
UH-1H was built by Bell U.S based company in 1966 to 1970s were many of them saw action in the Vietnam War. UH-1D was built by Bell licensed German based company’s Dornier (that “D” was not “Darna” nor “Dornier” but Deutschland, another name of Germany) from 1967 to 1981. The West German company built 352 UH-1Ds between those periods. According to the helis.com in spite of their designation they were standard H models powered by the T53-L13 engine.
Both helicopters are based on the same 205 platform. It means both can use the same spare parts.
Readers, by the way, should not be confused with the older and smaller Bell UH-1D, which was based on the 204 platform and built from 1956.

Some of the 21 German made Dornier UH-1D combat helicopters for
 the Philippine Air Force

The advantage of UH-1 in the project contract with Rice was the bidder could actually bid using other variants of the UH-1 series aside from the standard UH-1H being used by the Philippine Air Force. That is as long as the other variant quality is similar with the old PAF’s work horse UH-IH.

2)  UH-1D not Operational

Mayweather can negate Pacquiao's Flurry

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Floyd Mayweather can negate the hay maker of Manny Pacquiao if based on his previous opponents who gave him a trench war on the ropes.

Photo shows Pound-for-Pound King Floyd Mayweather (L)

 with his signature Stick-and Run Strategy against the hay maker

 of Welterweight King Manny Pacquiao. This kind

of tussle will be seen on May 2 

His hardest and toughest opponents who roughed him up (the only solution trainers and fighters thought to beat him) were then Pay –Per-View’s superstar Oscar dela Hoya (who obliged the 147 lbs Floyd to fight him at the 154 lbs Junior Middleweight),  southpaw Victor Ortiz, and the two combats he had with Marcus Rene Maidana.
In all of those tussles I mentioned, the toughest Mayweather had escaped victorious was with Mayweather vs. Maidana 1 in May 2014 when the rugged hard chinned Argentinean, who disgraced KO puncher Ortiz to say “I was hurt” and gave up the fight in Round 6 in June 2009, dealt Mayweather a split decision victory.
Maidana, by the way, was not only a dangerous foe but a more stronger puncher than Pacquiao
That fight, where some hard core fight fans give some big deals, however was immaterial because in their rematch in September 2014, Floyd and his trainer and father Floyd Sr., hatched a stick and run, clench and stick, stick and slip, and other tricks they could get from that son of a gun’s stick exposed by neutralizing the speed, smothering and hammering styles of Maidana in that one sided target shooting rematch.

QUESTIONS

Here are my posers to those who root for Pacquiao to win in his May 2 biggest fight of the Century against Mayweather:

This Priest Court’s Contempt, Charges

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

I was amused with GMA-7 sports caster Chino Trinidad's opinion on Pound-for-Pound's boxing king Manny Pacquiao vs. Oscar dela Hoya, Pacquaio vs. Miguel Cotto. Walang binatbat daw iyong dalawa kahit mahaba ang kamay.

He, he, siyempre walang binatbat nag reduced ng weight sila.  Cotto (who should be in 154 lbs limit’s Junior  Middleweight) and dela Hoya (who climbed the canvas at 145 lbs despite fighting as Middleweight) reduced ng ilang weight classes. Those guys were dehydrated, salamabit!
Mayweather vs. Pacquiao? Wait for my article; I'll carefully analyze it for you guys.

Attaboy Duterte!

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

When I was huffing and puffing past 2 Pm of February 18 trekking the snaking stairs of the new Hotel Le Duc in Dagupan City for its 5th floor's convention hall  (I ain’t know there was an elevator there) for the press conference of colorful and tough talking Davao City’s Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, I bumped into a former colleague at the University who told me the mayor “spiced” his impromptu speech with the amused members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Pangasinan Chapter with expletive's “p*tang In*” every time he cited a patent corruption issue bedeviling the government.

PRESIDENTIAL TIMBER. The no-nonsense  Davao City Mayor  Rod Duterte posed
with the tough talking members of Pangasinan media after he spoke last February 18
at the Rotary-Club of Dagupan City. MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Aside from the male and female lawyers there, there were several retired generals who were mostly PMAyers, that North Cotabato's former Governor Manny Pinol introduced to me, prominent Manila lawyers including my political law professor and former President Gloria Arroyo's counsel Raul Lambino, Dante Jiminez and his Volunteers Against Crimes & Corruption (VACC), and the “sea” of members of the media where many of them patiently waited for Duterte at 11 Am for the 2 Pm press conference of that day.

“Parang ikaw pag nagsasalita, may spiced of swearing in between your emphatic statement,” my colleague at the academe ribbed me.
***

When I met Dagupan City’s Chief of Police Supt. Cris Abrahano at the parking ground of the hotel while he supervised his police manning the flow of the traffic for the mostly Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) of Duterte’s entourage and guests to conveniently egress to the national highway, he told me he has not yet heard Duterte’s speak.

Instead of citing to him the one liners of the no-nonsense mayor at the 5^th floor, I rephrased to him, that amused him, the excerpts of the  Q & A of the editorial board of the Graphic Magazine Special Edition on Duterte that former Governor Pinol, a town mate, gave me when I brought him the day before to Ruel Camba’s No. 1 radio commentary program at DWPR.

PMAyers got the Icing, PNPyers got the Ice

By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

Running for elective public office in the Philippines is not a cake walk. For one, a bet needs a media platform to air the things he had done, his advocacy, and other things he deems that could boost his political stocks

Cadets at the Philippine Military Academy at Fort del Pilar, Baguio City

.

Take for instance, a popular AM (Amplitude Modulation) radio station in my province.  A source told me that a 30 minutes daily prime time program cost a wannabe P32,000!

So it means the aspirant pays P96,000  thrice a week program or P384,000 a month just to promote what is good about him and what is not good about his adversary - of course through his PR men in the booth.

The aspirant’s rival, I heard, used to pay half-a-million pesos in his three months 30 minutes a day except Saturday and Sunday program. It was cheaper since the program was broadcast at early dawn.

A staff of an FM  (Frequency Modulation) Station masquerading as AM station told me that a candidate can get a non-prime time program of 30 minutes at his station at P40, 000 a month, the problem however there are only a dearth of political bugs who dare to listen there as FM is for music and not the political stuffs it announcers there dishes.

It only shows that AM station is serious business while FM stations with all its music and clowning of its D.J or disk jocks are, well, not so serious business in terms of earning revenues.

That’s why, I observed, that during media gatherings like the Christmas media's night those who swagger most (as they rubbed elbows with politicians) were those at the AM while those at the FM bands stayed at the sideline drinking silently their San Miguel Lights beer while they watch and wonder why congressmen, board members, and mayors joined media men Atong Remogat and Harold Barcelona in a guffaw while some of them even fished out from their pockets big bills for their friends at the AM bands and in the print.

“Vice President (Jejomar) Binay probably paid your station more than P100, 000 in his one hour afternoon interview at your station?” I posed to an announcer of Bombo Radyo when the controversial vice president dropped by lately at the office of Dagupan City’s Vice Mayor Brian Lim when he attended the birthday bash, of his Man Friday in the North, Binmaley, Pangasinan Mayor Sam Rosario.

The announcer just nodded his head to me in agreement.

Patrons gravitate to this radio station because of the survey that it crows that made her tops the Nielsen Media Research. The Research does not only declare it as No.1 but, son of a gun, even  zealously compared how  its rivals including DZRH-Manila eat the dust in the race of snaring listeners who I surmised came from the 35 years old and above age’s category.

 How about the younger generation? Salamabit, these politically apathetic folks kill their time listening to music of FM stations or watch videos at YouTube or porn at some online sites or scour their FaceBook than getting relevant news from “talk radio” – Americans’ slang of AM band.

One of Bombo Radyo's comparative advantages in the dog-eat- dog’s world of broadcasting, I observe, is its almost non-partisanship on the squabbles and intramurals  of local players while most of its rivals announcers, who are poorly paid, become apologists and mouthpiece of politicians who could whisk some “dough” to motivate them in advancing the endeavour of their patrons.

When Senatorial bet Joey de Venecia ran in the 2010 election, former Speaker Joe de Venecia told me that the former pays P200 to P300 thousand per 30  “seconder”  advertisement at either TV giant ABS-CBN or GMA-7.  If my memory serves me right, Joey for the few weeks dash, in his race to be included in the Top 12 of either Social Weather Station or Pulse Asia polls, had been airing three to four ads a day to get the attention of the voters around the country.

Hmmm?  P250,000 multiplies by three times a day multiplies by 30 days equal a staggering of P22,5000, 000 a month!

Indeed running for public office is not a walk in the park. That’s why presidential wannabe Rod Duterte has been telling all and sundry in the country that he will run for the country’s top post, where he could reform this pathetic country through his Dirty Harry’s governance, if some folks cheap- in P10 to P15 billion as campaign chest in his 2016 election’s foray.
 So my dear Procopio, my gofer, the name of the game in Philippines’ political hustling is “Wherewithal!”

***

Just woke up my father thru phone and told him the following: "You open HBO and watch war movie "Flags of our Fathers". Although I saw it for several times before, the Clint Eastwood (yes Virginia, the same guy who directs “American Sniper”) directed movie, the flick is about a story of the U.S Marines who fought to death the Japanese in Iwo Jima.

 I added that the U.S commander told the young Marines there that they were fighting Japanese soldiers who dug- in to die at the island near Guam and the Marianas Islands. "It was a sacred ground for them, they are there to die and not to surrender”.

 Thousands of Americans died on that skirmishes in caves that were effectively fought with flame throwers. That deadly war produced the iconic photo of war correspondent’s Joe Rosenthal of the Marines gallantly raising the Stars and Stripes at the highest peak there called Mt. Suribachi.

Six years after Iwo Jima, my father and former president Fidel V. Ramos fought the North Koreans and Communist Chinese in South Korea under the command of military genius 5- Star General Douglas MacArthur whose HQ was in Japan.

***

In Iwo Jima, 25,665 U.S and Japanese soldiers died. War and death are sometimes necessary to preserve our way of life, ideal, and belief. To those Doves of War who want the Philippine government adopts lock, stock, and barrel the controversial seemingly onerous Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) despite the MILF coddling one of world’s most wanted criminals Malaysian bomb maker Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan and the troops of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) so we can avoid war in Mindanao, the Wars in World War 1, World War 2, U.S Civil War, the dysfunctional Barrieto families, er,  Falklands, others are the best arguments against them.