For Pinoys, time stops as Pacquiao battled Cotto

For many Filipinos, time stopped Sunday noon as Filipino boxing icon Emmanuel “Manny" Pacquiao battled Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto for the World Boxing Organization welterweight crown. While hundreds flocked to stadiums and establishments showing the Pacquiao-Cotto bout, others watched the fight in television shops or listened to the radio coverage. In Manila’s downtown Sta. Cruz district, Filipinos crowded at an appliance store showing the fight and cheered on Pacquiao in the early rounds.

Others flocked to a shop selling surplus television sets, and watched the bout from there. Even some police precincts tuned in their television sets to watch, while passersby tried to get a glimpse of the historic fight of the their boxing idol. Many stores in Manila's Quiapo district turned on their radio sets for the radio coverage of the fight. Some motorists and pedicab drivers turned on their radios, too. On the other hand, fewer than the usual number of people were seen at churches late Sunday morning. “Kalahati lang ang upuan ah. Sabagay, mas malakas ang hatak ni Pacquiao (The attendance for this mass has been halved. Pacquiao obviously attracted a bigger crowd)," commented a priest at a downtown Manila church during a pre-noon mass. - GMANews.TV