Philippine boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao has launched his presidential bid with vows to tackle poverty and corruption as he seeks to win over voters with his rags-to-riches story.
“The time is now — we are ready to rise to the challenge of leadership,” Pacquiao — currently a senator — said on Sunday, as he accepted the nomination of a rival faction in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s ruling party.
The eight-division world champion and national hero made the announcement weeks after losing what could be his last professional fight, against Cuban Yordenis Ugas in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Pacquiao, who entered politics in 2010 as a congressman before being elected to the Philippine Senate, has long been expected to make a tilt for the country’s highest office.
The 42-year-old is deeply admired by many in the nation for his generosity after hauling himself out of poverty to become one of the world’s greatest and wealthiest boxers.
However, his support for Duterte’s deadly drug war, and previous comments describing gay couples as “worse than animals,” have earned the high-school dropout plenty of detractors.
“For those asking what are my qualifications, have you ever experienced hunger?” Pacquiao asked the national assembly held by the anti-Duterte faction of PDP-Laban.
“Have you ever experienced having nothing to eat, to borrow money from your neighbors or to wait for leftovers at a food stall? The Manny Pacquiao that is in front of you was molded by poverty,” he said.
Pacquiao’s star power in a country famed for its celebrity-obsessed politics would put him in a strong position in the presidential race next year, but it would not guarantee victory.
Reaction to his announcement has been mixed, with some questioning the boxer’s suitability for the presidency.
“Seriously, Manny? You’re an inspiration in boxing but I can’t compromise to let you run my country,” one Twitter user wrote.
A public skirmish between Pacquiao and Duterte over the latter’s handling of the South China Sea dispute with Beijing and official graft could also erode support for the boxer.
Duterte — who is constitutionally allowed to serve only one term as president — rivals Pacquiao in the affections of many Filipinos and declared last month he would run for the vice presidency.
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
A team of doctors and vets in Pakistan has developed a novel treatment for a pair of elephants with tuberculosis (TB) that involves feeding them at least 400 pills a day. The jumbo effort at the Karachi Safari Park involves administering the tablets — the same as those used to treat TB in humans — hidden inside food ranging from apples and bananas, to Pakistani sweets. The amount of medication is adjusted to account for the weight of the 4,000kg elephants. However, it has taken Madhubala and Malika several weeks to settle into the treatment after spitting out the first few doses they
RSS