26/07/2025
๐ช๐ถ๐ณ๐ผ๐ด๐ต
๐๐ก๐ข๐ฅ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฐ๐ง๐ฌ
As thousands of Filipinos struggle to recover from yet another typhoon, PNP Chief Gen. Nicolas Torre III and Davao City Acting Mayor Baste Duterte are preparing to lace up their gloves, not for disaster response, but for a charity boxing match. Even as communities remain flooded, the focus and energy has turned to who will throw the first punch.
The Philippines is underwaterโliterally. Millions of Filipinos are affected by flooding, typhoons keep coming, and public services are stretched thin. And yet, two government officialsโPNP Chief Gen. Nicolas Torre III and Davao City Acting Mayor Baste Duterteโthink now is the right time to organize a boxing match. Not a crisis response, not a coordination plan, but a fistfight.
Torre accepted Duterteโs public dare on July 23 and proposed turning their personal grudge into a 12-round charity match at Araneta Coliseum. He says the money from sponsors and donations will go to flood victims. โMaybe this is a very good time para sa isang charity boxing match,โ Torre told the media. But while videos of Duterte training for the event circulated online, Torre missed his own training to brief President Marcos on the countryโs worsening disaster situation. That irony says it all.
This isnโt about public service; itโs about ego, image, and deflection. The conflict between Torre and Duterte didnโt start in the ring; it began years ago with Torreโs crackdown on Davaoโs police force and his role in the arrests of Apollo Quiboloy and Rodrigo Duterte. What should have remained a matter of governance and accountability is now being marketed as entertainment for the public.๏ฟผ
The fact that this match is even being entertained reveals a disturbing truth: that weโve normalized drama over duty. Both of them believe they can solve political tensions with theatrics and wrap it in the language of charity to make it palatable. That isnโt leadership. Itโs opportunism. And with the country experiencing an average of 20 typhoons a yearโten of which are typically destructiveโthis normalization of spectacle is both reckless and dangerous.
Whatโs even more troubling is how easily the public is expected to accept this insanity as normal. In a country where political theater often overshadows real service, this fistfight-turned-charity act risks reinforcing a dangerous example that leadership is about viral moments, not tangible outcomes. We are being conditioned to measure public officials by spectacle instead of substance, as if optics could replace governance. But while the cameras roll and hashtags trend, real crises continueโunresolved, underfunded, and unprioritized. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, government spending on disaster risk reduction and management has consistently fallen short of whatโs needed to address recurring calamities.
And even if Torreโs intentions are sincere, the entire premise is flawed. Thereโs no clear plan for how donations will be collected, used, or audited. The Philippines is no stranger to unaccounted-for relief funds. After Typhoons Yolanda and Ulysses, numerous aid pledges failed to reach those who needed them most. This boxing match risks becoming another example, wrapped in fanfare and forgotten when the cameras are off.
Some may argue that in a time of crisis, any effort to raise fundsโeven one as unconventional as a public fistfightโshould be welcomed. If it brings in donations and draws attention to disaster relief, why reject it? But that kind of reasoning dangerously lowers the standard of what leadership should be. When public officials initiate acts of charity, those actions must still meet the basic expectations of transparency, urgency, and respect for the situation at hand. A spectacle may attract attention, but it cannot replace real systems. And when symbolic gestures take center stage, governance risks becoming a performance, focused more on image than results and more on applause than accountability.
If they truly want to help, they should scrap the ring and support existing relief mechanisms: funnel funds to vetted NGOs, strengthen coordination with DSWD and NDRRMC, and lobby for long-term infrastructure to mitigate future floodsโespecially when the national government has allocated over โฑ1.02 trillion toward disaster risk reduction and climate resilience from 2019 to 2025 from the National Expenditure Program. Thatโs what real leadership would look like. Not a viral punch, but a serious plan. What we need from our leaders is focus, action, and empathy, and not a ringside seat to their bruised egos.
Article by Paula Angela Paniza (9 SPJ Soliven)
Layout by Yzadora Salazar (12 STEM J)
