MANILA, 20 June 2003 — World champion Manny Pacquiao went berserk not inside the boxing ring but in a videoke joint in an ugly Friday the 13th incident.
The International Boxing Federation (IBF) champion who was supposedly to be in deep training for his next title defense, figured in an early morning bar brawl in General Santos City after a singer refused his advances.
Chief Insp. Maximo Layugan of the Gen. Santos City Police, quoting witnesses, said Pacquiao broke glasses and plates at the Mamagaya Music Lounge on Santiago Boulevard.
The incident took place around 2 a.m. as Pacquiao beat up security guard Bert Orong then broke glasses and overturned chairs and tables in an uncontrolled fit after a singer named Noemi turned down Pacquiao, who wanted to take her out after the show.
Noemi, the lead singer of the group Unisonn band playing at the joint.
Orong approached Pacquiao to inform him that the club was about to close. Pacquiao got irritated and answered the guard: “Don’t you know me?” It was then when Pacquiao beat up the hapless guard.
The 24-year-old Pacquiao denied going wild inside the bar and said he was just trying to pacify a group of rowdy men near their table. GMA Network’s “Frontpage” evening newscast reported that the boxer claimed his friends were behind the disturbance.
He also denied beating up Orong. He also denied going berserk after the singer turned down his offer to go out.
A source close to Pacquiao said he was not supposed to be in a bar in the first place since he is in training for a fight against Mexican Emmanuel Lucero set July 27 at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. He was set to leave for the US last June 22 but his visa has yet to be released by the US Embassy in Manila.
Orong claimed that Pacquiao entered the bar together with his 14 fully-armed bodyguards, some of whom are in fatigue uniform and carrying firearms.
“I did not expect that Pacquiao would be the one to start provoking trouble just because of a woman. And I know he is a professional boxer and a world boxing champion at that,” Orong said.
Pacquiao’s brother Roming denied that the brawl started because of the singer’s rejection of Pacquiao.
“It was not my brother who provoked trouble inside the bar but the other customers’ table who started throwing glasses near us,” Roming said. Pacquiao arrived at the music lounge an hour earlier accompanied by nine other persons, presumably his friends, according to Layugan.
Pacquiao later invited Nemie to join him.
This apparently infuriated Pacquiao. He rose from his seat and began smashing glasses. Pacquiao later stormed out and kicked several motorcycles parked outside the joint. Policemen called to the scene by the joint’s Belgian owner, Nabil Koubaisy, were hesitant to arrest Pacquiao because his companions were armed with guns, according to police.
This was denied by Boy Fernandez, Pacquiao’s trainer, who said, “That’s not true, nobody from our group pulled out guns. The guns are inside the vehicles.”
Fernandez refuted the singer’s story and claimed the boxer got irked when a group in a nearby table started throwing glasses on the floor, creating a commotion.
The Games and Amusements Board said it would investigate the incident, with GAB chairman Eduardo Villanueva saying Pacquiao could be “suspended or his license revoked.”
Pacquiao said he would welcome an investigation into the incident, adding: “I cannot do anything now but to face an investigation. I welcome that so I could defend myself from all these allegations.”
