Top Rank promoter Bob Arum claimed that boxing champ turned senator Manny Pacquiao is planning to run for president of the Philippines in 2022.
Arum said in an undated video posted by talksport.com that Pacquiao would be the first boxer to become a president of the Philippines.
“The first president I think we’ll get as a fighter is little Manny Pacquiao, who told me, once again, I did a Zoom telephone call with him, “Bob, I’m gonna run in 2022 and, when I win, I want you there at my inauguration,’ he said.
The only eight-division world champion in the history of boxing has yet to comment on Bob Arum’s statement.
Pacquiao first tried to enter the world of politics in 2007 when he ran as the representative of the 1st District of South Cotabato province. Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), however defeated him. She also said, “More than anything, I think, people weren’t prepared to lose him as their boxing icon.”
On May 13, 2010, Pacquiao won as the congressman of the lone district of Sarangani. He scored a landslide victory over the wealthy and politically well-entrenched Chiongbian clan that had been in power in the province for more than thirty years.
He served his second term as the representative of Sarangani in 2013 while his wife Jinkee was also elected as vice-governor of Sarangani.
On May 19, 2016, Pacquiao was formally proclaimed as one of the winners of Philippine Senate seats by the Commission on Elections.
However, Senator Pacquiao was named as the top absentee in the Senate in June 2019. He posted 12 absences from July 2018 to June 2019, according to data released by the Senate as Congress adjourns.
Out of 61 plenary sessions from July 23, 2018, to June 4, 2019, Pacquiao attended 49 times, incurring 12 absences, said the Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau (PRIB).
Pacquiao served as a principal author of three laws as of February 2019, which are the National Bible Day, Sarangani Sports Training Center, and the OFW Handbook.
As for his boxing career update, his head trainer Buboy Fernandez said the People’s Champ would be ready to go back to the ring anytime.