MANNY PACQUIAO is being robbed right in his own kitchen; our boxing hero is being cheated in his home turf.

Pacquiao could lose by hometown decision, not against Oscar Larios, because that fight is not bound to last the full 12 rounds.

Pacquiao is being cheated by his own manager, Shelly Finkel.

That, in an unhappy nutshell, was how Rex Wakee Salud, who has produced at least three Filipino world champions — Dodie Boy Peñalosa, Malcolm Tuñacao and Gerry Peñalosa — has viewed Pacquiao’s brewing trouble with his manager.

It’s like this. Finkel’s two-year managerial contract with Pacquiao is expiring on Jan. 31, 2007. (Finkel’s contract stipulates that he takes 10 percent of Pacquiao’s purses, with his management partners, lawyers Keith Davidson and Nick Kahn, splitting another five percent.)

But, in an obvious ploy to put Pacquiao off balance and get his hands tied for a contract renegotiation, Finkel has filed a suit against lawyer Franklin Gacal and Salud.

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Salud is an adviser and trusted friend of Pacquiao; Gacal is the secretary of Pacquiao’s promotional outfit.

Pacman’s July 2 bout against Larios is being handled by Manny Pacquiao Promotions, Inc.

No need for a boxing thesaurus here. Finkel has, in the process, virtually sued Pacquiao himself.

Finkel, as detailed by the Star’s Joaquin Henson, has accused Gacal and Salud of fraud and contract interference in negotiating Pacquiao’s fight against Larios with ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp.

The giant network gave Pacquiao’s promotional company $4 million to stage the July 2 card. Pacquiao is to get $1 million of the total budget as his rightful purse.

But Finkel, entitled to a percentage of Pacquiao’s purse, wanted a share from the $4 million total budget, not from $1 million. Finkel and associates are demanding 25 percent of the $4 million budget.

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Here’s the catch. Finkel, says lawyer Gacal, is agreeable to withdrawing the suit if he gets what he has been demanding out of the Larios fight.

Explained Gacal: “If he shares in $3 million, he’s agreeable to no extension; if he shares in $2.5 million, he wants an extension of one fight; if he shares in $2 million, he wants an extension of two fights; if he shares in $1.5 million, he wants an extension of three fights. If he shares in $1 million, his rightful cut, he’s going to court.”

Wow! That’s a lot of sleazy math which should not be boggling Pacquiao’s music system at this point.

But, for a deeper appraisal of the mess, let’s hear from a dedicated Pacquiao backer, Gary Gittelsohn, manager of world light flyweight champ Brian Viloria: “According to the account in the Manila Daily Bulletin, Finkel and Kahn have alleged that Gacal and Salud coerced Manny into signing a disadvantageous contract with ABS-CBN in connection with the July 2nd Larios fight. This, from the same people who installed their friend Gary Shaw as Manny’s promoter for the Pacquiao-Morales II and paid him $250,000 out of Manny’s end of the purse — a sweetheart deal that stunk to high heaven. Where’s the fiduciary accountability? From my vantage point, the only thing disadvantageous in that ABS-CBN deal is that, seemingly, Finkel and Kahn are having a difficult time taking control of the monies. Thus, the ABS-CBN deal appears to be a lucrative one for Manny and his promotional company, but not for Finkel and Kahn. And, for a real laugh, I’d love to hear Finkel’s and Kahn’s legal theories as to what duty Manny owes them for a contract extension. Instead of Larios, Manny should just take these two con artists in the ring and rearrange their features.”

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Thank you, sir.

That statement was emailed by Gittlesohn to boxing expert Hermie Rivera, no stranger to this kind of dirty infighting.

Meanwhile, trainer Freddie Roach, mainly responsible for bringing in Finkel into Team Pacquiao, has also raised hell. He said the bespectacled, bald-headed manager, who had handled the likes of Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield, has no business distracting Pacquiao at the height of training.

Unless Finkel wanted to destroy the Filipino national treasure.