Mitsubishi

Pursuing Pacquiao

I thought I understood what moving like "a bat of out hell" meant but I realised I was wrong one late summer afternoon as we sped like maniacs up and down a dangerously dark and winding road on the southern Philippine coast trying to keep up with a convoy going at almost 200km per hour with a black Humvee at its centre.

In our clunky little rented Mitsubishi, all the Al Jazeera crew held on to the handles closest to us for dear life as we were rattled and rolled in ways we barely thought possible.Seatbelts notwithstanding.

We were on the political campaign trail with world-renowned boxer Manny Pacquiao - and it was nothing like we had expected.

An early start (sort of)

“Make sure you are there by 9 a.m.…” our producer repeated. “His schedule is packed and they can’t even tell us if he can he can sit for an interview straightaway…”