By Lynde Salgados
Correspondent
IT seems Cagayan de Oro or Kagay-anon women, in particular, are ‘magnet’ to some of the finest prizefighters in the country when it comes to the so-called affairs of the heart are concerned.
After professional world boxing champion Rene Barrientos from Aklan and amateur Asian boxing gold medalist Roberto Jalnaiz from Bohol, it’s the turn now of Olympics bronze medalist Eumir Marcial from Zamboanga to enter the marriage vow with a stunner from Cagayan de Oro.
The 26-year-old Zamboangueño boxing hero Marcial, who won a windfall of fortune after his bronze conquest in the Tokyo Olympics, will marry his girlfriend of nine years, Princess Jenniel Cabradilla Galarpe in October 28 in a grand wedding to be held in a paradise-like resort somewhere in Batangas.
Also, an amateur boxing national champion, Princess Jenniel, 25, is the daughter of former Cagayan de Oro boxing trainer and international referee Reynaldo Galarpe and niece of Jalnaiz’s wife Joy who is Reynaldo's younger sister.
They’re now all US-based, though the Galarpes’ ancestral house in Sto. Niño, barangay 31 near Cogon market is still existing and subject to repair for future business endeavors.
The now 79-year-old Barrientos, who has also established a close affinity with the Galarpe family, came to Cagayan de Oro in the early 60s then married Antonietta, the daughter of his boxing manager Dr. Dodong Almirante (both father and daughter are now deceased) from the old prominent families in the City of Gold.
“Our family members, except for me, will be there to attend the wedding. I still have a problem with my travel documents that I’m going to miss the special occasion,” said Princess' father Reynaldo Galarpe.
He described Marcial as very humble, helpful, and responsible.
The couple used to experience extreme hardship in their longtime relationship that they had to divide a small thing to eat, endure long walk for having no jeepney fare, pawning whatever left in their possession, and in Eumir’s words “lahat naranasan naming maging sobrang kapus sa pang araw araw.”
Now the timing is right for Marcial to make Princess a happy bride.
Aside from signing a lucrative professional boxing contract with the MP (Manny Pacquiao) Promotion, Marcial received at least P7 million from the government and various sports patrons for his Olympic effort, apart from a pair of properties’ rewards in Tagaytay and Zamboanga City.
According to Jalnaiz, Pacquiao had seen Marcial’s potential in professional boxing being a knockout artist himself.
“He (Marcial) already signed a contract worth P10 million, if I’m not mistaken. Having a family is no longer a problem. And their marriage is supposedly a match made in heaven because Princess was also a former mainstay of the national boxing team and a national female champion,” said Jalnaiz.
No less than the presidential candidate and the world’s only eight-division world boxing champion, senator Emmanuel Pacquiao heads the cast of the wedding’s principal sponsors that also listed at least six congressmen and some officials from the country’s different sports bodies and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
