My Piece of Cake: Letter to Kapamilya Foncy from Kapamilya Jan on Pacman

I received a series of texts today from a friend from Mindanao (I don't know whether he's in Davao, Koronadal, CDOC/Bukidnon)--an online friend from Kapamilya_ABS-CBN since 2003, whom we will call Kapamilya Foncy. He likes cartoons (mostly Asian cartoons or anime) and Asian drama-comedies (one of them Meteor Garden). The common denominator besides both of us as Kapamilyas: we like cartoons (anime or Western-made) and Meteor Garden. And one of our fave characters in Meteor Garden: Ching Her (the funny amusing sidekick and childhood friend of Shan Cai)! But we never met personally-I am in Metro Manila, he's in Mindanao. I hope for the day when we will get to meet.

Back to the texts I got from Foncy--he is bothered with GMA covering Pacman-Solis and not ABS-CBN. I think you're also bothered with that, like Foncy. In an attempt to ease the botherings, I post here my email to Foncy. (I told Foncy to wait for my email--responding to his texts will cut me a lot of cellphone load.)
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To Ching Her-Foncy,

Maayong adlaw sa imo, Bai! I hope you can take time to read my message. Here's the story, as I see it.

In each of Pacman's fights, anyone is welcome to cover. It's just that Solar Sports, being a popular sports-only TV channel in the Philippines, gets the rights to showcase Pacman's fights on TV most of the time. Most of the time, Solar invited RPN to air the matches on free TV (since Solar is a cable TV channel-only those with cable TV's can watch the fights if it's exclusively aired on Solar Sports).

In late 2005, Solar invited ABS-CBN to cover Pacman's 2nd fight with Erik Morales for a change, instead of RPN. At that time, ABS-CBN's Sports Department is focused on covering the basketball games of the PBA, PBL (which will be covered by Solar Sports starting this year), NCAA and UAAP and other sports events as covered in the sports shows of ABS-CBN's media channels. Seeing the fight as a welcome addition to the projects of the network's Sports Department, ABS-CBN accepted the invitation.

Seeing the power of ABS-CBN in covering Pacman-Morales II, the Sports Department quickly made a deal with Pacman on covering Pacman-Larios in Manila (the first time an international boxing event taking place in the Philippines since the Ali-Frazier match in 1973) and later Pacman-Morales III. No problem seen at all. Solar seemed to bide its time for an opportunity.

Then, there's Pacman-Solis. Having not covered Pacman-Larios and Pacman-Morales III, Solar Sports quickly talked with Pacman, who later contacted the ABS-CBN Sports people.

Actually, ABS-CBN Sports got the rights for the Moment of Truth-Battle of Cebu (which was still talked about in the boxing world), Gerry Penalosa-Daniel Ponce de Leon/Barrera-Marquez (talked about until now) and Boom Boom Bautista-Sergio Medina/Oscar dela Hoya-Floyd Mayweather (larger, more world-class and more spectacular than Pacman's fights as boxing experts say). And ABS-CBN still has many other projects to mind, among them the most high-tech election coverage Halalan 2007-Boto Mo I-Patrol Mo (because it will involve election-related reports sent from millions of people's cellphones)! ABS-CBN has to think on Pacman-Solis. Estimating its budget, the network initially offered P10 million.

With Pacman running in Halalan 2007 as competitor to Congresswoman Darlene Antonino Custodio in South Cotabato, he naturally needs money to sustain his election campaign, much to the dismay of his ma. Pacman has to think.

So the Pacman's offer: P40 million. Solar Sports said: Deal! ABS-CBN said: No Deal.

And for a change, Solar Sports invited GMA to cover the fight on free TV. GMA jumped the gun and said: Deal!

Here are more articles on this.
Manny Pacquiao Portal
Bleacher Talk
Manny Pacquiao Boxing Champ
Isyusero
ABS-CBN Versus GMA

ABS-CBN fanatics have no choice but to catch the news on Pacman's fight with Jorge Solis over TV Patrol, unless ABS-CBN plans to chronicle the fight in one way or another.

So, just calm down, bai. One song says, "The best things are yet to come...And somewhere down the road..." Win or lose via his fight with Jorge Solis on GMA and with Ms. Custodio on Halalan 2007, I hope the next Pacman fight will be on ABS-CBN-that's the time I can say Deal.

Well, what a long explanation! I hope that clears up your mind. Should you have anything to say or ask, please email me/text me ASAP.

See you around Ching Her-Foncy!

Yours,
Ching Her-Jan
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If and when I will meet Kapamilya Foncy, I say Deal.