MANILA, Philippines — A resolution granting retirement incentives and health care benefits to former professional boxing champions, who have won world titles or world championships, has been filed at the House of Representatives.
South Cotabato Representative Darlene Antonino-Custodio, an opposition member, filed House Bill 278 seeking to grant a monthly pension of P15, 000 to former boxing champions upon reaching 50 years old.
Former boxers, who are incapacitated while pursuing their boxing careers, are also covered by the bill, Custodio said in a statement on Monday.
“Champions are champions and they deserve better than a mere pat on the back or adulation of his countrymen,” she said.
Custodio said boxers risked their lives and limbs here and abroad to give honor and glory to our country but many of them have struggled financially and have ended up “pitifully poor” once their careers were over.
“That is the woe of man past champions,” she said.
“They go inside the ring armed with the thought that they do redounds not only for their benefit but for the country as well,” the lawmaker added.
Custodio beat world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao in the congressional elections last May.
