Pacquiao on TIME Magazine cover

Barely a week before the Pacquiao-Cotto fight in Las Vegas on November 15, 2009 (Philippine time), Manny Pacquiao once again proves that he is very much a hot media copy by landing the covers of the next issue of the Asian edition of TIME Magazine!

To hit the newsstands over the weekend, this issue is only the the 10th time that a boxer was featured on the cover of TIME.  It is also only the second time that a Filipino celebrity made it.

The last time a Filipino was featured on the cover of TIME Magazine was in 1986 when then Philippine President Corazon C. Aquino was declared as the magazine’s WOMAN OF THE YEAR!

This time around, the TIME Magazine cover carries the blurb, “THE GREAT HOPE“, in reference to Manny Pacquiao as the Filipino’s icon for a better life, a better tomorrow.

I personally met Ishaan Tharoor, one of the two writers of the article, when he flew in to General Santos City during the first week of October to interview some people who knew the Pacman.

The Indian writer had earlier asked an audience with GenSan City Mayor Pedro Acharon, Jr., my boss. I received him first at the mayor’s office since the mayor was still on a meeting.  Later on, I joined the two gentlemen while the interview was being conducted at the chief executive’s conference room.

The article which Tharoor co-write is entitled “THE MEANING & MYTHOS OF MANNY“, and chronicled Manny Pacquiao’s rise from poverty to his present status.   It dealt not only with him but the people surrounding him, including Freddy Roach, Mike Konch, his mother Dionisia, Governor Chavit Singson, among other people.

It also speaks lenghtily on his upcoming second foray into politics and although the writers were ambivalent about his chances, they both agree that the 2010 elections will have to be “the fight of his life“.

To read the TIME Magazine article, PLEASE CLICK HERE.