‘We don’t have electricity, but we have dreams’

MANNY Pacquiao is a god to young Filipinos, many of whom see boxing as their only chance to escape poverty. Few will succeed, but they’ll die trying.

MANNY Pacquiao is a hero to young people across the world, but in his home country, he’s a god.

He’s part of the reason so many young Filipinos now see boxing as their ticket out of poverty. While few will succeed, they are willing to die trying.

Al Jazeera documentary Becoming Pacquiao follows several of these youths as they train at the run-down Kambal Kamao gym in Lipa, an hour and a half from Manila. A typhoon blew the roof off the gym last year, destroying most of their equipment, but it’s the best these boys have.

Training is often hampered by downpours, and they nap between rounds to conserve energy because they have so little to eat. Many have travelled far from their families to live at the gym and rarely see or speak to them.

“I started boxing when I was 14,” Brian Diano, 24, told reporter Chan Tau Chou. “I was so nervous when I first stepped into the ring. I lost that fight.

“All of us have dreams. Even though we don’t have electricity and good living conditions here, we have a manager who supports us. Everything else doesn’t matter as long as we can fulfil our dreams.”

These young men dream of being world champions, but their gym doesn’t even have a roof.

The documentary follows underdog Diano as he competes for the Asian boxing federation’s super flyweight title in Cagayan de Oro in the southern Philippines. The prize is $US550, small change compared to the millions earned at the top level — but winning is a ticket to bigger and better competitions overseas.

Businessman and former politician Jun Gandeza took over the gym in 2011, pouring his savings into training the young men, taking them to competitions and paying their medical expenses. “I’m not going to leave them, no matter what happens,” he said. “I told them, if any one of you could become the world champion, even the next day I could be dead, it’s OK for me, because producing a champion, just one champion, could help everybody.

“Feeding their family, helping their family, that’s the only thing that gives me more courage to continue, because I have nothing at all. I have lost everything, my political career, my times with my wife, my three kids.”

Not all Filipino promoters are as ethical. Many are focused on the money, with ring officials taking bribes and managers setting up mismatched fights.

Diano’s previous manager took half of his money and made him pay to fight, often against far heavier boxers he had no hope of beating. He was trapped but saw little other choice. With Gandeza, he has at least a glimmer of a hope of reaching his potential.

But they dream of becoming Manny.

They have little equipment or food.

Many young men at the club started boxing simply to feed themselves. One would fight for two kilos of rice and two cans of sardines, another fought for milk, Milo and clothes.

“We had a very hard life, we ate once a day,” said another of the boxers. “I made a punching bag out of a sack and woodchips and used my shirt as gloves until it tore. My mum said, keep going son, so you can help us in the future.”

Now they are hungry to emulate Pacquiao’s success in the ring, but the meagre rice and fish meals they can afford is hardly the diet of champions. Nevertheless, Diano is keeping his head up.

“As a kid I collected used bottles, plastics and metal scraps,” he said. “There wasn’t a day when I was able to have a full meal. I was inspired by Manny Pacquiao to box because our stories are the same.

“He was poor and I am also poor. I want to follow in his footsteps and help my family. He was able to lift his family and even the whole nation.”

It’s a slim chance, but perhaps one of these young men will be able to do the same. They’ll stop at nothing to make it happen.

The four-part series 101 East: Becoming Pacquiao starts on Al Jazeera English Friday at 7.30pm.