MANILA, Philippines–Although not as festive as the celebrations for boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, Manila City Hall gave new boxing sensation Nonito Donaire a warm welcome on Wednesday.
Donaire arrived at the Manila City Hall before 8 a.m. for a press conference and the ritual motorcade. He was welcomed by officials led by Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim.
During his press conference, the boxing champ’s manager Arci Baltazar revealed that Donaire has agreed to join to “Celebrity Duets” on GMA-7. The fighter urged the public to vote for him in the singing competition and pledged to donate his prize money to charities helping underprivileged children.
City Hall employees, most of whom were clad in yellow, were waiting for Donaire when he went out for the motorcade. Along with his wife and management team, Donaire boarded a pickup truck, which then snaked its way through Manila streets.
Although the crowd was not as thick as that for Pacquiao, people stopped briefly to cheer him, wave or flash the Laban (Fight) sign.
Students took photographs of Donaire using their cellphone cameras. Employees went out of their offices to take a glimpse of Donaire.
Donaire dedicated his triumph at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas over the weekend in memory of democracy icon and former President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, who adopted the Laban sign and the color yellow as emblems for her People Power movement that toppled the Marcos dictatorship in 1986.
