A Filipino's View on Manny Pacquiao

As a Filipino I would like to share my view on Manny Pacquiao. I won't dwell on his boxing skills nor about him facing Floyd Mayweather. I want to share my view about his political career. I guess I can say that I have a common opinion about him along with millions of Filipinos. Manny Pacquiao ran for the congressional seat for South Cotabato 1st District for the May 2007 elections but lost to Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio. I remember watching one of his interviews on our local channels here. He was asked 'why did he want to enter the world of politics?'. To which he replied that it was in his heart that he truly wanted to help the Filipino people specially the less-fortunate. I remember him saying that he has thought of it a lot of times but he always thought and felt that in his heart he truly wanted to be able to help others. I also remember his mother, Dionisia, trying to stop him from entering the dirty world of Philippine Politics the same way she always encouraged him to leave boxing. My thoughts about Manny that time was that this guy was genuine. I felt that he did really have it in his heart to help the poor people in our country. But the main concern of the voters was that what did he know about governance, even politics? He may have it in his heart to serve but heart alone is not enough to battle the world of corruption. He could hardly speak and read english when most of the documents are written in english. So the Filipino voters felt Manny's desire to help was sincere but were scared that he just might turn out to be someone's puppet in that office. So he lost. To a woman. A woman who doesn't have a very clean track record in terms of no involvement to corruption. Now for the May 2010 elections he wants to run for the congressional seat of the Sarangani province. He was told by the current president, Gloria Arroyo, that he will run un-contested since the president promised she would prevent Chongbian from running for the same office. But Chongbian disregarded the president's admonition and still filed for candidacy to contest Manny Pacquiao for the said office. First of all, why would the politicians here want Pacquiao to be involved in politics? If you have seen his fights, you would notice that he is always accompanied by rotten politicians like Gov. Chavit Singson and even the vice-president Noli de Castro. In HBO's 24/7, we have seen the 2010 presidential aspirant, Manny Villar, went to his training camp without notice and just distracted him! Unbelievable! These rotten politicians want a piece of Manny Pacquiao or want to be associated with him to gain more votes from the people. Can you see what politics is like here in the Philippines? Anyway, after all these, I'm just glad to hear that Manny didn't join any of those rotten politicians political parties. Instead he joined a different party, the "Pwersa ng Bayaning Atleta" or PBA, and stood as its chairman. Their main advocacy is to support the Philippine athletes - which makes sense in my opinion. So, I'm not sure if he will win this coming election since I am not from Sarangani even though my father is. Anyway, if he will win, I just hope he will show the same dedication he has or had in boxing to fighting corruption and implementing good governance. He must stay away from those 'TRAPOS' or Traditional Politicians! He must shun them! Or else - like the dialog from Batman, "either you die a hero or live long enough to be a villain". In my opinion, and I think it's very obvious, there is absolutely no relation between his popularity in boxing and an office in the government. But the Philippine nation is in great need of leaders who truly and genuinely want to do the right thing. I have my faith in that guy. I have faith that he will not forget where he came from. That he will not forget the walk of life of his parents and his family before he became a boxer. That he will not forget how hard life was before he became famous.