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| Filipino boxers try to follow Pacquiao's path out of poverty.
A total of 150 professional boxers in the Philippines have been banned
for falsifying brain scan results aimed at detecting serious head injuries in
the sport, regulators said Tuesday.
The government has been imposing strict medical testing procedures
following the deaths of several Filipino boxers from injuries sustained in
professional fights in previous years.
"The welfare and safety of our boxers is part of our mandate. We do
not want any more boxing deaths," Games and Amusements Board chairman
Abraham Kahlil Mitra told reporters Tuesday.
The ban means one in seven of the country's 1,054 Filipino professional
boxers are not allowed to step on the ring, the country's sports regulator
said.
The board found 150 boxers had submitted "fake" CT scan
results this year, apparently because they could not afford an actual test, the
board's medical officer Radentor Viernes said.
About half of those blacklisted have since submitted the required medical
examinations and the ban against them will be reviewed, Mitra said.
The board is also investigating the involvement of other parties in the
CT scan fraud, he added.
In 2012 the undefeated flyweight Karlo Maquinto, aged 21, collapsed and
later died from a brain injury after only his ninth pro fight, having rallied
from two early knockdowns to salvage a majority draw against a Filipino
opponent.
Two other Filipino professional boxers also died from ring injuries in
2005 and 2008, Mitra said.
Apart from the boxing deaths, Viernes said the board had also refused to
renew the licences of five other boxers due to brain injuries or fluid
build-up.
Four of them had been diagnosed with "minute haemorrhage" from
blood vessels in the brain, believed to have been sustained in previous fights,
while the fifth had brain oedema, Viernes added.
The Philippines is a boxing hotbed that has produced the likes of
legendary Manny Pacquiao, winner of world titles in an unprecedented eight
different weight divisions.
For many in the impoverished Asian nation, Pacquiao is an icon and role
model and prizefighting offers one of the shortest tickets to fame and fortune
for young Filipino males.
However, Mitra said many success-starved Filipino fighters were earning
puny prizes and could not afford CT scans that the health ministry says cost at
least 6,000 pesos ($170) or the more expensive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
scans costing almost three times as much.
"We've been criticised for being too strict but still that's our job
and we maintain it that way," he added.
Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial told reporters Tuesday the government had
no plans to outlaw boxing, only to "regulate" it.
To help the hard-up boxers and prevent more
boxing deaths, Mitra and Ubial announced Tuesday that government hospitals will
in future offer free medical tests to Filipinos applying for professional
boxing licences.
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