Don’t know if you saw this, but I read about an interesting incident involving Manny Pacquiao (who is now a congressman, I believe) and Miguel Rene A. Santos, governor of General Santos City in Mindanao, last month.
The governor stood up at one point during their meeting, and Pacquiao noticed a switchblade in his pocket. He picked it out without the governor realizing and started flicking it open and closed, testing the blade with his thumb.
“This can be dangerous for children” he said. The governor took it back and showed him how to whip it out and unfold it in one motion.
“Even if my opponent has this, I can beat him as long as he’s physically close to me.” Pacquiao commented. The governor gave him the switchblade to keep, telling him, “You can thrust it in somebody and just leave it in there.”
The full story is in The International Herald Tribune, Sat-Sun Sept. 18-19th 2010 (or NY Times), but this is the gist.
Can’t imagine that kind of exchange between politicians where I’m from!
[quote=graculus;2455743]Can’t imagine that kind of exchange between politicians where I’m from![/quote]Yeah same here. Our lot like to wait until their backs are turned before they get the knives out.
The source is the newspaper (International Herald Tribune) for the dates I gave above. It is the international version of the New York Times, so if you check their site, you could probably find the story. I saw it in the paper itself - it is certainly one of the more reputable ones, so I tend to believe it.
Or google Pacquiao and switchblade and you’ll find it.
^ Yes it is, but not in the sense of switch blades. Farmers there used to/still carry around these bolos/machetes everywhere if they ever need to cut something down. If you were the eldest brother in the family, you would start carrying one as well when you reach the age of around 10. Carrying a switch blade just makes people think that you’re about to rob them.
I think it may have been a balisong being called a switchblade, since the media uses switchblade to mean “small, quickly opened knife carried by thugs in 80s movies” and the balisong qualifies. It says the guy showed him how to whip it out and unfold it in one motion, which is so simple as to be patronizing if it were a conventional switchblade, especially since this is after Manny was opening and closing it. Were it a balisong, Manny could have been playing with it but not opening it in one motion, and I think it would make more sense with the “dangerous for kids” comment, because balisongs make you want to play with them and you can close it with the weight of the handle on your fingers if you don’t know what you’re doing. I’ll bet the Philippines has a lot more scars from childhood from balisongs than from switchblades.