“The Hill of Samuel” by Alfred Yuson is a Palanca award winner (third place) in 1968 and is the top winner in the 1968 Free Press Literary Awards of the Philippines Free Press.

Synopsis:  Dignos, son of Samuel the Mistico, came back to where his father used to wield his influence–a sexual rite of great occultic proportions.  He looked for the hill where his father did his orders and he got to the place through the helpless acquiescence of an aunt.  He met his cousin Orlando and his betrothed, the virginal Lumen whose features Dignos instantly desired.  He went to prepare the place of the ritual and in no time he drove his mystical power to work laying aside the protestations of the males in the community and attracted with a magnetic devilish power all the women including Lumen who was to be the main dish for his lustful appetite.  Orlando, coming from a distant place from which he did a mystical form of healing, tried to catch up with the ongoing sexual ritual of his cousin for fear of losing Lumen but he was powerless to the already frenzied horde of hypnotized women.  The hill of Samuel had come alive again.

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The popular boxing radio host Pedro Fernandez hits the nail on the head when he described Manny Pacquiao as the first post-Internet fighter.  What he means is that Pacquiao brings the glory of boxing to the peaks of Internet websites.  Well, that is just another reason to back up the claim that Manny Pacquiao is the most popular boxer in the world today — “Internetly” speaking.

But Pacman is not just enlivening the boxing websites but also the sport of boxing itself.  While many experts dismiss him to be no. 1 pound-for-pound against Floyd Mayweather, there is not a doubt that the science of boxing is in its liveliest mood not when Pretty Boy Floyd fights but when Pacman rumbles. 

Boxing promotions will have fat pockets if they have a hell of a Pacman matchup.  Advertisers have nothing to lose if Pacman is their product endorser.  Entertainment companies will rack up the profits if they can have exclusive rights to Pacman’s fights.  Politicians with not much to promise can become strong contenders when they rub elbows with the Pacman. 

In the Philippines, crime rates drop , political enemies suddenly become friends, families not normally together become one, church attendance drops or church schedules are adjusted whenever the Pacman fights.  And if there ever is one who will get in the Pacman’s way, let that one prepare himself to be devoured by the human embodiment of the pacman computer game.

Back to the Internet.  Tell me, who should be Internet’s number 1 boxer?