[Rappler’s Best] ‘Tabla’

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Will Manny Pacquiao fight again?

It was a draw. Tabla. “Hindi natalo, hindi nanalo,” in the words of Chito dela Vega in his Tambay piece.

What does that even mean to Filipinos who beamed with pride after watching a 46-year-old Manny Pacquiao outrun and outsmart the much younger defending WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios, who’s at his prime at 30?

“I thought I won the fight,” said Pacquiao after the majority-draw decision at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Sunday, July 20. As Delfin Dioquino wrote, Barrios retained the title and crushed Pacquiao’s two big wishes: to reset his record as the oldest welterweight champion, a feat that he achieved in 2019 at the age of 40, and to become the first boxer to come back from retirement and win a world title. 

Will he fight again? Check it out in Delfin’s story. Perhaps a rematch?

The fight began hours after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. left for Washington, DC, to meet with US President Donald Trump, a visit that was finalized only on July 11 and after Trump increased the tariff on Philippine exports from the initial rate of 17% to 20%.

• For his July 20-22 visit, Marcos intends to secure a trade deal before the new tariff takes effect August 1. His trade deputies went to the US days ahead of him to hammer out a compromise with their American counterparts. 
• The tariff is not going to fray the friendship of both countries, which has turned robust after the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte who favored China. We expect both leaders to harp on the countries’ vigorous military ties in the face of Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea. On July 16, in fact, the US announced it will construct a boat maintenance facility in a naval detachment in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, close to access points to the WPS. 
• In March, during US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s visit to Manila, he committed to the rollout of a $500-million pledge for foreign military financing, the deployment of advanced equipment, including a new anti-ship missile system, bilateral defense industrial cooperation, and special operation forces training. Read more in Bea Cupin’s View from Manila piece.

But let’s face it: Trump and Marcos are dealing with some bad rap these days owing to, ironically, the monsters that they had thrived on: social media networks manipulated by propaganda, lies, and revised versions of the past.

The belly of the beast that made them win elections is now a multi-headed hydra that’s shaking their presidencies.

• Trump is taking a beating within the MAGA universe over his government’s reversal of a pledge to open the case files of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, that possibly included a clientele list. He lashed out at allies, calling them “weaklings” for criticizing him, but as Reuters noted here, the Epstein fallout has “forced Trump into an unfamiliar role: trying to shut a conspiracy theory down.”
• And despite Trump’s efforts to kill it, The Wall Street Journal, owned by his staunch ally Rupert Murdoch, published a story about the US president sending a “bawdy” birthday letter to Epstein back in the day. It’s fake news, Trump fumed, and sued the paper. Sounds familiar?

What about Marcos? To conspiracy theories that began right after the sudden death in March of a Tantoco scion, who happened to be the husband of Malacañang’s deputy social secretary, the administration responded with silence. Not only that; neither the President nor the First Lady were seen condoling with the Tantocos, which was strange because their ties are not just official but also personal — the Tantocos having been loyalists and cronies of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos.

• Malacañang kept mum all this time while the Duterte networks shared videos of the First Lady and Paolo Tantoco seated right beside each other at an official event the night before he was found dead in a hotel room in Los Angeles, and spread gossip that she was in the room when police came knocking.
• Last week, official reports from Los Angeles showed that Tantoco had died of cocaine use. This brought back to life conspiracies about the First Lady’s supposed involvement in Tantoco’s death, inspired the birth of a bogus document that would seem to prove it, and added fuel to the “bangag” narrative that was spun on the First Couple.
• In her Closer Look piece, Inday Espina-Varona said that Malacañang is its own worst enemy in this controversy. “The Marcos government, beneficiary of Cambridge Analytica’s disinformation operation, should know better than most that lies spread faster and farther than catch-up truths,” she wrote. IMHO — still a lot of unanswered questions which will continue to feed the online beast.

Here are some of Rappler’s bests that you shouldn’t miss:

JC Punonbayan breaks down the Marcos administration’s new tax law — and what it means for your savings and investments.

Lian Buan shows us how lending apps have been abusing Filipinos, harassing them to the point that some have taken their own lives.

Jairo Bolledo tackles concerns about the Supreme Court’s “unusual” order to respondents, in particular the House of Representatives, to comment on the petitions challenging the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte.

Ambo Delilan writes about the life of Leah Mosquera, the second caregiver from Negros Occidental to die since 2023 as a result of attacks in Israel.

John Sitchon recounts the eight months he spent investigating the controversial property linked to Duterte drug war conspirator Royina Garma.

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– Rappler.com

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