Senator Manny Pacquiao is now the new president of President Rodrigo Duterte’s party PDP-Laban, its official said on Wednesday night.
According to party executive director Ron Munsayac, House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco is now the new PDP-Laban executive vice president.
“Let’s welcome our new PDP-Laban party President Sen. Manny Pacquiao & EVP Speaker Lord Velasco!” Munsayac said on Twitter.
His tweet showed a photo of Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, Velasco, and Pacquiao. Pimentel was the former PDP-Laban president and is now executive vice-chairman.
However, Munsayac said Pacquiao was “acting national president” of the ruling party.
“Pimentel has passed on the practical day-to-day leadership of the party to one with new, ‘modern’ ideas and one who has the time, energy, and boldness to prepare the Party for the 2022 national and local elections,” Munsayac said.
The new party leaders would work “very closely” with their chairman President Rodrigo Duterte.
Manny Pacquiao for president?
In June, 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 the 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 did not comment on Bob Arum’s statement.
On May 13, 2010, Pacquiao won as the congressman of the lone district of Sarangani. He served his second term as Sarangani’s representative 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.