7 people died watching Pacquiao/Hatton

7 DIE OF HEART ATTACKS WATCHING MANNY'S FIGHT

MANILA, MAY 5, 2009 (STAR) Seven people died of heart attacks while watching Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao pummel British challenger Ricky Hatton on television on Sunday.
In Isabela, 63-year-old Rudy Babaran was declared dead on arrival at the Cagayan Valley Sanitarium and Hospital.

“He was rejoicing for Pacquiao, especially when it appeared that (Pacquiao) was already winning the match,” said Joe Dasig, who was with the victim and 10 others watching the fight live on a 46-inch multi-speaker television.

“The hospital is only about 200 meters from where we watched the match. Unfortunately, it was too late.”

Babaran, a brother of Judge Raul Babaran of the Cauayan City regional trial court, was a cousin of Transportation Undersecretary Thompson Lantion.

Others who died of heart attacks while cheering for Pacquiao were Timoteo Semana Ramos, 69, of Vintar, Ilocos Norte; Mike Villaflores of Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya; Ala Abet, 53, of Lapu-Lapu City; and Rolando Cabang, 52; and Abraham Esparagosa, 54, both of South Cotabato.

In Manila, 49-year-old Vic Ocampo also succumbed to a heart attack while watching the Pacquiao-Hatton match at the Dapitan Sports Complex.

Zero crime in Cotabato City

In Cotabato City, police again recorded “zero crime” as Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton clashed in Las Vegas.

“No untoward incident happened within that brief period of what was for many Cotabato City residents an epic boxing bout,” said Cotabato City police director Senior Superintendent Willie Dangane.

Traffic in Cotabato City’s busy thoroughfares was also light, he added.

Residents in the city’s 37 barangays were amazed with Pacquiao’s dramatic performance.

“I can’t believe Hatton would fall like a timber cut by chainsaw,” said Bernard Sero, a ranking employee of the Commission on Audit in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Ustadz Farid Solaiman Adas, chief of the ARMM’s Madaris Education Bureau, said not a single untoward incident occurred in areas where Islamic missionaries were assigned when Pacquiao and Hatton fought in the ring.

“Many of us in the bureau, which has more than 700 Islamic preachers, did not doubt Manny’s capability to defeat Hatton so fast,” he said.

Adas said Islam encourages athletic competitions as a means of propagating sportsmanship, teamwork, and discipline among Muslims.

“We admire Pacquiao and respect him as an icon of sports but we don’t idolize him, for idolatry is a taboo in Islam,” he said.

“We admire his courage, discipline and his perseverance as a boxer.” – Charlie Lagasca, Teddy Molina, John Unson


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