By Ronnie Nathanielsz

THE miserable failure of the Games and Amusements Board to protect the public interest in boxing and its coddling of those who exploit us with their dime-a-dozen titles is bound to hurt the sport.

Time and time again, patsies from Thailand?many of them regarded as tuktuk drivers?come to the Philippines to get battered with not a whimper from those who are mandated to protect the public interest.

One clear example was last Saturday when a certified bum identified as Daothon Sissuey was mauled by Glenn Porras in the very first round and had to be administered oxygen by ring physicians after being dropped twice. Strangely, there was no record of this fighter at all on boxrec.com and nobody knew his official, certified record. In fact, the GAB Cebu office said they didn?t have a record of his fights or of his real name as indicated on the passport. When we sought to find out, we were given the runaround by both Cebu and the Manila boxing division.

How could the GAB approve a fight if it didn?t know the correct name of a fighter and his record? How would they assess with their limited knowledge whether or not it was a mismatch? This is not mere incompetence. It is gross and unmitigated neglect for which the GAB should be taken to task.

The felony is compounded because of the alleged propensity of someone with a history of past shenanigans in posting fake results, to conjure up fight records. Sissuey?s record looked patently dubious, judging by the Thai fighter?s performance. There was a claim that Thais sometimes fight under different names and that is why their records cannot be checked on sites such as boxrec.com. That?s true. But in such cases, the GAB boxing division is party to the crime if it does not follow the rules which require the agency to have a contract submitted indicating the true name of the boxer with his validated record before it can approve a bout.

There have been a succession of certified Thai patsies brought in by a couple of promoters in connivance with officials of the World Boxing Organization, who are matched against comparatively talented Filipinos for a collection of miscellaneous titles that the organization?s Asia Pacific head Leon Panoncillo manufactures with the regularity of fake diplomas one can purchase in Recto Avenue.

This continuing sham borders on the scandalous especially when you have a Mexican Jose Angel Cota fighting for an oriental title. Either Mexico has drifted to the orient while all of us were asleep or the world map has been mysteriously altered to include Mexico in the geographical boundaries of the orient. This has been happening over and over again with the implicit sanction of the GAB which tells us that the men in the government agency under the Office of the President haven?t a clue about geography or simply don?t give a damn, which seems more like it.

The WBO, like all other boxing organizations, charge sanction fees for these alphabet soup titles and in the end, either the public who pay to watch the fights or local government entities, who are inveigled into supporting these events and opening them free to their constituents to keep them happy, pick up the tab. Some local officials?not all, we must hasten to add?exploit this for their own political ends, which is a crying shame.

As hard-hitting journalist Scott Mallon, who tells it like it is notes, Filipinos bitch about Pinoy boxers sent to Thailand to be slaughtered in mismatches, but nobody complains when the same thing is done in the Philippines. Scott is perfectly right.

All this amounts to the reality that the Philippines is contributing to the maintenance of the WBO regional office in Thailand. Besides, we also foot the bill for the belts, which are manufactured in Thailand but could very well be crafted in Manila at a possibly cheaper price.

Another nagging problem is that of journalists serving as boxing judges. How could a journalist who is beholden to the GAB for serving as a judge with a couple of favored ones given juicy, well-paying assignments abroad, ever criticize the GAB for any wrongdoing? Or can we expect a journalist who serves as a Philippine representative of a world boxing organization like the WBO, to expose the shenanigans of the organization?

Where are the ethical imperatives when a journalist/judge assesses the chances of fighters prior to judging a fight in which these same fighters are featured?

One final note. When we described German Meraz as a ?workhorse? based on his record and the fact that he had fought 13 times last year. we were virtually crucified for allegedly undermining Gerry Pe?alosa?s opponent, which was farthest from the truth. Obviously there were those who failed to comprehend the meaning of ?workhorse,? which describes a tireless worker as well as appreciate its relevance to Meraz.

Watching the fight, we realized we had made a terrible mistake. Meraz was not a workhorse, he was a horse! He pranced around the ring and helped make Pe?alosa look bad. Worse still, he robbed fight fans of the hard-earned money they spent to watch the card which was mercifully saved by the Braveheart boxers. As Vice Gov. Manny Pi?ol, who was on the Studio 23 TV panel despite being the co-promoter and manager of the Braveheart boxers, whose fights he covered pointed out, ?this fight will not be remembered for Gerry Pe?alosa-Meraz,? but for his emerging stable of fighters. Congrats Gob. At least you got this one right!