As someone who is exceptionally good at hitting people Manny ‘Pacman’ Pacquiao is an ideal candidate for the Philippines congress.
Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao shakes hands with residents of General Santos on the island of Mindanao
A 28-year-old high school dropout and former bakery worker, Pacquiao’s talents and experience are not normally associated with high political office.
But he is also the WBC international superfeatherweight boxing champion, a national icon, and in a system where public recognition is a vital asset, no-one can out-punch him.
When 45 million Filipinos go to the polls today in parliamentary elections, they will choose from include actors, sportsmen, and a bearded Muslim who has changed his name to Osama bin Laden.
Debate on policy takes a distant back seat to personality and power in the Philippines, where poverty is rife, vote-buying seen as normal, and electors are required to write in the name of their preferred contender on the ballot paper.
“Elections in this country are not fought on issues,” said Jean-Paul Zialcita, a political scientist at the University of Asia and the Pacific.
“Democracy in this country is at least 100 years away.”
The poll is effectively a referendum on the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the diminutive Harvard-educated economist who officially won her post three years ago amid allegations of electoral fraud, always denied, and has since survived two impeachment attempts and multiple crises.
Nonetheless what is really at stake is which elite will be accorded the right to reap the benefits of power.
Mrs Arroyo is not up for re-election herself, but her Team Unity supporters need to take two-thirds of the 240-strong house of representatives to be able to block any further moves to send her to trial in the senate.
In the 24-seat upper chamber the Genuine Opposition slate backed by Joseph Estrada, Mrs Arroyo’s predecessor ousted when the military withdrew its support in the face of mass demonstrations, is expected to win at least half the 12 seats being contested.
Estrada, a movie star before he went into politics, is currently under house arrest, awaiting a verdict in his trial for ‘economic plunder’ while in office.
Anti-Arroyo candidates include navy lieutenant Antonio Trillanes, who is standing for the senate from military prison, where he is awaiting trial on charges of attempting a coup in 2003.
The alleged ringleader of the plot, Gregorio Honasan, who once described himself as the Philippines’ “resident adviser on failed coup attempts”, is also seeking a senator’s post as an independent – and has offered his support to any party who will take him.
It is said that “guns, goons and gold” are essential to be voted into office in the Philippines.
Writing in the Philippine Star, columnist Jarius Bondoc estimated that running for the senate would cost more than ?4 million, for a position that pays less than ?500 a month.
But the winners make fortunes from the institutionalised corruption that has seen the Philippines go from one of the richest countries in Asia to one of the poorest.
With the stakes so high, any means available are deployed in the struggle for victory.
More than 100 people have been killed during the campaign, half of them candidates, and the toll is not unusually high.
Even Pacquiao, who says a million-pound reward has been put on his head, does not leave his house without five bodyguards protecting him, despite his fighting skills.
He is standing on a pro-Arroyo ticket in his home region of South Cotabato, on the Muslim-majority southern island of Mindanao, against one of the leaders of an impeachment attempt against the president.
“I’m not afraid,” said Pacquiao. “Many are against my running, even my mother, but it is deeply ingrained in my heart to help.” It is such a strong instinct that he has even been filmed handing out health insurance cards to supporters.
Ordinary voters are resigned to the reality of the situation.
“Every election there is always cheating and vote-buying,” said Ging de Leon, 30, unemployed, who lives in one of the many slums that dot the capital Manila.
“They’re all good at rhetoric and making promises, each one of them. They can say all these things, but when it comes to action, nothing usually comes out of it.
“I still vote of course. I value my rights as a Filipino.”
