MANILA, Philippines?(UPDATE) Saranggani Representative and boxing champion Manny Pacquiao is ready to rumble.
But the fight now is not inside the boxing ring, but against poverty in his impoverished district.
Delivering his first privilege speech in plenary, the neophyte lawmaker made a pact with his constituents to give them livelihood, their first provincial hospital, employment and schools.
He also thanked the people who supported him and his family, mentioning his wife Jinkee, at least three times.
“One question that occurs to me again and again is: Can I be a good congressman? And my resounding answer is, with my heart in the right place, my work ethic, my discipline and my commitment to learn from wiser and more experienced people, yes I can be a good congressman” he said.
Pacquiao said he would work to give better lives to the close to 500,000 people of Saranggani, 40 percent of whom has no adequate housing and proper nutrition.
“Those 40 percent are not just statistics. It’s their daily experience of life,” he said.
Having come from a poor family as well, the former bakery worker said he knows how to be hungry and homeless.
“That was for me the first half of my life,” he said.
Pacquiao said he would help develop the corn, rice and coconut industries in his home province, so that people would not be solely dependent on fishing.
He also pledged to improve production, post-harvest and marketing processes for these products to be marketable.
To help the people in their livelihood, he said he would establish a Placement Assistance Coordination and Manpower Assistance Centers (PACMAN) to provide technical training for employment.
Pacquiao said he would also help his fellow athletes to help in the country?s bid to bag its first Olympic gold medal in 2012.
