MANILA, Philippines – Manny Pacquiao attended to his congressional duties Tuesday, held a mini-chess tournament that lasted the night in his Forbes Park mansion and steered away from talks on the coming elections and the billion-dollar class suits filed by fans in the United States.
A dozen friends, including action star Philip Salvador and former world pool champion Ronnie Alcano, ex-pro Zaldy Realubit played chess with Pacquiao until 7 a.m., according to a Team Pacquiao source.
But the eight-division champ talked about basketball, politics and the injury on his right shoulder.
The previous day, class action lawsuits totaling 32 were filed one after the other around the United States.
Each of the complainant branded Pacquiao?s fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. as ?the fraud of the century.? They want their money back.
They said Pacquiao should have disclosed his injury before the fight. Sportshub ( Article MRec ), pagematch: 1, sectionmatch: 1
Pacquiao did not talk about the class suits, and his adviser, Mike Koncz, briefly said that their lawyers are ?working on it.?
The Filipino boxing icon was keen on discussing the performance of his team in the PBA ? the Kia Carnival, which is off to a 2-1 start.
The Carnival downed champion team San Miguel in its debut game in the Governor?s Cup and then came close to toppling crowd-favorite Ginebra. Last Sunday, they stunned NLEX for a 2-1 record.
Pacquiao sat on the bench when Kia lost to Ginebra but was in crucial meeting in Congress when his team won over NLex.
He accepted the loss to Ginebra.
?Ganun talaga ang laro eh (That?s how the game goes),? said Pacquiao, adding that his absence didn?t really matter in the game against NLex.
?Okay lang basta manalo,? he said.
Kia, an expansion team in the PBA, is leaning on its 7-foot import from Senegal, Hamady N?Diaye, and an ambitious local crew.
