Manny Pacquiao may never have become a superstar boxer and cultural icon whose charity and good works changed the lives of countless of his countrymen if his nation?s current policy against drugs had been in place while he was a teenager experimenting with drugs.
Pacquiao, who has tried to juggle his duties as a politician while training to fight Jessie Vargas for the WBO welterweight title on Nov. 5 in Las Vegas, recently told reporters in the Philippines that in an earlier time in his life, he used drugs, including methamphetamine and cocaine.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte was elected in May on a strong anti-crime, anti-drugs platform, and Pacquiao has become a close ally and supporter. Since Duterte?s inauguration in June, police, at the new President?s directive, have killed several thousand drug pushers and users.
The focus is on stopping the flow and distribution of drugs into the country which is an acute problem in the Philippines. Pacquiao said crime is down and tourism is up since the crackdown.
But because of the indiscriminate way the killings have occurred, some drug users have been caught up in the sweeps and killed in addition to the distributors, the intended target.
Thus, a teenaged drug user like Pacquiao used to be could lose his life as essentially collateral damage.
Pacquiao, in his first term as a member of the Philippines Senate after two terms as a member of the House of Representatives, spoke to reporters in Hollywood on Wednesday about his upcoming fight with Vargas and about national and international affairs.
He mostly offered mundane answers to questions about his work in the Senate. He recounted his 14-hour days, which means arising early to run, going to the capital to perform his senatorial duties and then heading to the gym to train for the fight.
?I used to have time for my friends,? he said, sounding wistful.
Pacquiao has spoken out against government corruption, a dangerous stance to take in a country where the politics are often violent.
He told Yahoo Sports on Wednesday that the police killings are supposed to target only dealers, not users, and that he supports an action that would investigate these additional killings.
He?s sponsored or co-sponsored 17 bills since his June inauguration, most of them benign things such as a billboard regulation act and a SIM card registration act.
