MANILA, Philippines ? Instead of running for Congress, boxing champion Manny Pacquiao can better serve the country as an adviser to government peace negotiators with Moro rebels, Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said.
?I suggest that the goodwill that Manny Pacquiao has struck in our people hearts and minds be immediately put to good use in search for peace in Mindanao perhaps as adviser to [the] peace panel,? Pimentel said in a text message.
Pacquiao and Pimentel both hail from Mindanao, where the government is dealing with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) insurgency and the al Qaeda-linked extremist group Abu Sayyaf.
Pacquiao, who grew up in General Santos City, is reportedly planning to seek the lone congressional seat in Saranggani province in the 2010 elections. He failed to wrest the South Cotabato seat from incumbent Representative Darlene Antonino-Custodio in 2007.
The boxing champ is a reservist Master Sergeant in the Philippine Army. In his last movie, 2007?s ?Anak ng Kumander [The Commander?s Son],? he played a Moro rebel.
But Senator Francis Escudero raised doubts on whether Pacquiao could help solve the decades-old insurgency in the south. He said the government pace panel would be better off tapping someone who was familiar with the Mindanao problem as adviser.
Escudero said that instead of joining politics, Pacquiao should heed clamor for him to concentrate on boxing.
?It?s the right of everyone, including Pacquiao, to join politics. However, I cannot blame those who say that he should continue to win and give pride to Filipinos by staying in boxing,? Escudero said in Filipino.
?I hope he stays in boxing because of the victory and the sense of pride that he brings to Filipinos. It gives us a rare chance to be united,? he said.
