By Hermie Rivera

Through most of 2006, Manny Pacquiao was in the spotlight, chased by boxing’s top guns for the right to stage his megabuck fights.

A flick of his fingers lines up guys to his mansion for his signature to multi-million dollar fight contracts.

Pacquiao chose Top Rank’s Bob Arum to act as his promoter— much to the consternation of Oscar de la Hoya, an early favorite in the tug of war of two of boxing’s prime movers.

While Arum snagged Manny’s support for now, the Pacman wanted Marco Antonio Barrera in a rematch but was shelved due to the proximity of Oscar de la Hoya’s ‘Cinco de Mayo encuentro’ with Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Marco Antonio, the current WBC super featherweight ruler fights for the Golden Boy Promotions. Fact is, he co-promotes his fights with Oscar and so with the rest of the GBP fighters.

Manny’s move to sign up with Bob Arum deprives Oscar’s outfit the opportunity of staging what Barrera fans have been clamoring for; a chance for redemption of their idol since his fall at the hands of the Filipino ring ‘incomparable’ at San Antonio’s Alamodome.

Pshaw! A rare treat for those aching for the rematch capped by an ‘adios’ fight Oscar has penciled against Floyd Jr. on May 5. One of de la Hoya’s treat for Filipino fans as it involves some of our country’s rising stars headed by Ray Boom Boom Bautista, Tony Aldeguer’s unbeaten star.

Pacquiao, last year’s huge boxing free agent is typically unaffected by all the fuss.

The Filipino boxing hero is busy cashing in on the huge outlay Arum has earmarked for our ring idol who, as of this writing, is awaiting Arum’s promised bonanza..

He’ll plunge headlong into training if his meeting with the Mexican champ is salvaged somehow.

A mean feat I say since the rift between Arum and de la Hoya has irretrievably widened what with the announced pairing of Juan Manuel Marquez and Marco Antonio Barrera in the March 17 championship card at Mandalay Bay resort in Las Vegas,Nevada.

I wonder how the guys at HBO are taking these mind-boggling developments.

Rumors swirled, speculation and downright misinformation abound as to the route Manny will take even as high-profiled promoters pursued him.

Not even Arum’s repeated claim of an airtight contract with Manny could dissuade other promoters from making a grab of what’s left to take.

Since Manny has no plans of growing heavier and is sticking to his current weight class. the rematch with Barrera remains the only option of Arum to make good his vow of generous commitment to our boxing great– else he is toast.

The other factor vexing Bob is the dearth of talents in his bull pen. Oscar has corraled most if not all of the viable super-featherweight contenders.

So that if one insists on a Barrera/Pacquiao rematch, de la Hoya’s group must be in the mix otherwise there’ll be no meaningful fight for the new year to begin with.

One of Arum’s fighters who is undefeated in 22 fights by knockout is the Venezuelan Edwin Valero.

He is being touted as Pacquiao’s opponent in Macau (courtesy of Steve Wynn) and so with a ringster named Humberto Sotto. The latest entrant to the Macau card is Korea’s InJin Chi.

Manny is not impressed at all.

“Valero’s KO victims” says the GenSan knockout artist are “certified tuktuk drivers of Bangkok.”

So there.