Here’s something I’ve wondered about privately with friends over the past few months: do we really like Manny Pacquiao? I would usually lay out the evidence:

• His movie Anak ng Kumander was a massive flop, and so was his biopic that starred Jericho Rosales and Bea Alonzo.


• His songs rarely got played, nor did they chart, on Love Radio. And seriously, those guys would play anything. Bang!


• His television sitcom Show Me Da Manny does not get significantly higher ratings than the sitcom it replaced. It’s really on the air only so that GMA-7 stays on his good side (it might be part of his fight contract package).


• People quickly piled on him during the Team Jinkee-Team Krista brouhaha.


• His ring popularity hasn’t translated to electoral popularity; everyone knows about his loss against Darlene Antonino-Custodio, but his closest buddy, Chavit Singson, finished 24th in the senatorial race despite getting massive face time after every Pacquiao fight. 24th!

This week, the initial returns came in for the Metro Manila Film Festival, where Pacquiao’s latest movie Wapakman is playing, and the outlook for the champion was as ugly as Miguel Cotto’s face after their November fight. Here’s the list of gross earnings from the first day:

1. Ang Panday – P16.9 million


2. Ang Darling Kong Aswang – P16.8 million


3. Shake, Rattle, and Roll XI – P16.2 million


4. I Love You, Goodbye – P11.7 million


5. Nobody, Nobody but… Juan – P8 million


6. Mano Po: A Mother’s Love – P6.9 million


7. Wapakman – P750,000

Nope, that’s not a typo, and while the figure seems like a joke – P750,000 is probably just a couple of rounds at Chavit’s poker table – the only joke is on Pacquiao. Turns out, all this time, while he was doing all these extra-curricular activities, we weren’t laughing with him, we were laughing at him.

A few weeks ago, in his piece on Slate, Rafe Bartholomew compared Pacquiao to another Filipino sports icon, Robert Jaworski. But is that comparison even apt? People certainly liked Jaworski, and the Big J certainly had a more successful movie career than Pacquiao. There’s no evidence that people would line up for Pacquiao for anything other than boxing.

It certainly doesn’t augur well for Pacquiao’s other projects outside the ring. A couple of weeks ago, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, a supporter of presidential candidate Manny Villar, said that Pacquiao’s endorsement “might be unparalleled coming from a single person.” I doubt it. Pacquiao himself would have enough trouble winning for a congressional seat, as he’s not just up against the scion of a political clan, but the whole incumbent machinery in the upcoming elections.