Facebook Twitter YouTube SoundCloud RSS
 

Manny Pacquiao Announces Run for Philippines President


After much anticipation, one of the world’s greatest boxing legends has decided to step into a brand new ring.

“We need progress. We need to win against poverty. We need government to serve our people with integrity, compassion and transparency,” said the 42 year-old Manny Pacquiao during a recent press conference in Manila.

“We gave you a chance, but you failed us. We waited for a long time, decades have passed, but nothing happened.”

His nomination comes less than a month after he lost by unanimous decision to Yordenis Ugás in Las Vegas in what many believe was his last professional fight.

He is still widely regarded as a ‘man of the people.’ Will his popularity be enough to succeed Rodrigo Duterte?

Washington Post reports…


Senator Manny Pacquiao, chair of the Senate Committee on Sports (Source Wikicommons 2016)

MANILA — Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao on Sunday officially announced he was running for president in next year’s elections, potentially facing off with incumbent Rodrigo Duterte’s chosen successor.

Pacquiao, 42, was nominated by a faction of PDP-Laban, the ruling party that fielded Duterte in 2016.

“I am a fighter and I will always be a fighter inside and outside the ring,” Pacquiao said at the party’s assembly over the weekend.

The news comes as no surprise to people in the Philippines, where the lines between celebrity and politics often blur.

Until this year, the boxer-turned-senator was supportive of Duterte, the populist president most known for a bloody war on drugs that has left thousands dead. Duterte is expected to run for vice president, in what analysts and critics say is a move meant to circumvent a single-term limit on the presidency.

But since June, the pair has clashed publicly, with Pacquiao criticizing the president’s policies toward China and corruption.

Pacquiao chaired the PDP-Laban until he was unseated by Duterte’s allies in July.

“When you are a champion in boxing, it does not mean to say that you are a champion in politics,” Duterte said of Pacquiao in July, adding that the star had, for years, heaped praise on his leadership.

Since taking office five years ago, Duterte has torn up the political playbook and has been widely condemned for his derogatory remarks against women and incitations to kill drug addicts and communists, among other outrageous statements.

The other party faction has nominated Christopher “Bong” Go, a senator and former Duterte aide.

Analysts expect Go to be a proxy for Duterte, who is bound by a single-term limit as president and must stay in power to avoid potential arrest by the International Criminal Court. The ICC announced last week it would proceed with an investigation of killings under Duterte’s term.

Pacquiao is the only eight-weight division world champion in boxing history and, in 2019, was listed by Forbes as one of the world’s highest paid athletes with earnings of around $26 million.

Continue this story at the Washington Post

READ MORE PHILIPPINES NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Philippines Files

PLEASE HELP SUPPORT OUR INDEPENDENT MEDIA PLATFORM HERE

 

 

Get Your Copy of New Dawn Magazine #203 - Mar-Apr Issue
Get Your Copy of New Dawn Magazine #203 - Mar-Apr Issue
Surfshark - Winter VPN Deal