Manny Pacquiao’s Wife, Jinkee, Eyes Politics, Cracks Out of Turn

by Charles Jay

Jinkee Pacquiao would love to see her husband stop boxing, and that’s a nice way to get some press for herself.The wife of the most famous congressman in the Philippines is in the process of becoming a political entity in her own right, and why not? What the hell, she’s now famous too.

Well, she was quite spooked about how that fourth fight against Juan Manuel Marquez went for her husband, and she is certainly not wrong for being nervous as she watched helplessly while her husband lie face first on the canvas for a period of minutes.

What she’s wrong about is in going public, to an outside party, with career advice for the former champion. Is this her way of expressing some independent thought?

First, she knows that Manny wants to go forward with his career. He said as much in the ring right after he was revived and had the opportunity to talk to HBO’s Larry Merchant. So when she interviewed with USA Today she was knowingly going head-to-head with her husband’s point of view, when there was plenty of opportunity to give him her opinion privately and to leave it at that.

Part of her quote was that “…for me, there is nothing to prove.” Certainly there wasn’t. But then again, there really wasn’t anything to prove before this last fight, or before the one prior to that. The fights against Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito weren’t conducted to “prove” anything. They were about making money, building a brand, and balancing risk and reward in his favor. She didn’t complain all that much about it; not that we know of. Playing the result of the Marquez fight out in public at this point is in poor taste.

This is a business, and there are going to be money grabs. Let’s face it; he may need the moolah. He might be like a lot of filthy rich folks. Between spending money at will and the tax situation he’s facing, he may not have a whole lot left.

According to Michael Koncz, the so-called advisor to the camp, Pacquiao could not retire right now and live with a level of extravagance for the rest of his life. Well, why not? He’s made enough. It doesn’t say much for his abilities as an elected official to put money and finances into perspective.

What is pertinent to this discussion is that his fame, achieved through his labor, has made it possible for her to be a political candidate in the first place. After all, she wasn’t going to get there based on her background in selling cosmetics, or whatever it was.

To be realistic about it, most people figure that she’s going to be her husband’s proxy in the Sarangani provincial legislature as she is set to run for Vice-Governor (which was a surprise announcement, incidentally) and he bides his time while waiting to become eligible to run for a senate seat (he’s got to be 35 years old to qualify). So these otherwise ill-equipped people will have a little power play spread across various levels of government.

Since one can probably assume that Manny Pacquiao did not ask his wife to go to Jon Saraceno (USA Today writer) and make him look bad by speaking out of turn, one might be wondering if such an action, which made international headlines, is an attempt on her part to show that she does indeed have a mind of her own, while serving notice that in HER new political career she is not going to be controlled by anyone, even if it’s the guy on the other side of the bed.

Maybe, just maybe. And if true, it might just give new meaning to the term “politics makes strange bedfellows.”