PIGEON IMPOSSIBLE

I've confessed to being a “raket man,” moonlighting in various ways to augment my income at different stages of my life. I never thought of trading pigeons, though, or racing them for that matter.

- RICARDO T. PAMINTUAN

Sure, as a boy, I tried to raise chickens from chicks I bought from church vendors who peddled them in brightly colored hues. I thought they were naturally yellow, pink, or blue. Such was the height of my naiveté that it’s no surprise they never had the chance to grow up to become prized fighting cocks (which is why I bought them in the first place, to enter them in tupadas or illegal cockfights).

My childhood friend did try to get me into pigeons, but I lost interest the moment five of his birds literally flew the coop, never to return with a fine feathered friend or two, as he had hoped. That was the last time I invested in any of his moneymaking schemes.

But Emerson Manabat— baker, father of two, and a devoted husband—seems to know what he’s doing. Emerson, who had pigeons for pets when he was growing up, has been breeding them for racing since 2021. Blame it on the pandemic.

His latest win came just last November at the North Derby Race, a grueling test of speed from Las Piñas City to Santa Ana, Cagayan, a distance of over 650 kilometers. His champion, Miss Red 14, took second place for a prize of P50,000, plus a trophy and certificate.

But before that, let’s get some facts straight.

Pigeons and doves belong to the same feathery Columbidae clan. Doves are smaller, often rural birds whose very name evokes grace and poetry — symbols of peace and wedded bliss. On the other hand, their city-dwelling cousins, often in drab gray or brown plumage, are streetwise and more likely to hang out in Luneta to gang up on promenaders as they mooch for