In Baguio city one bookmaker had to return 200,000 pesos (US$8,400) to gamblers because not one placed a bet on Cotto.
Father Michael Sinnott, an Irish missionary priest who was recently released from a month of captivity by suspected Muslim rebels, said his captors had been eager to set him free because they wanted to also watch the fight.
“‘Your freedom is our freedom. We don’t want to be here for a long time, too, and we want to watch Pacquiao’s fight,’” Sinnott told the CBCPNews, quoting his kidnappers.
National police spokesman Leonardo Espina said crime across the nation dropped dramatically during the fight.
In the strife-torn south, troops fighting Abu Sayyaf militants silenced their guns.
“In the [southern Philippine] headquarters, we set up a big screen for our soldiers to support our icon,” regional chief Major General Benjamin Dolorfino said.
Eid Kabalu, a spokesman for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which has been waging a separatist rebellion since 1978, said rebel commanders joined in the celebrations.
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