MANILA, Philippines – WBO welterweight champion and the world?s consensus No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter Manny Pacquiao is being touted as a presidential candidate in 2022 but while it?s far from his mind, the possibility is within the realm of reality.
At Pacquiao?s weigh-in for the Juan Manuel Marquez fight in Las Vegas last November, the headline of a USA Today 4-page insert ?Pacquiao for President?? was shown on the giant screen that served as the backdrop for the stage where the fighters stepped on the scales. Top Rank staged a coup when it arranged the unprecedented promotional insert and distributed the collector?s edition on the eve of the Las Vegas bout.
Pacquiao, 33, is set to retire from the ring next year and the plan is to hang up his gloves after three or four more fights, including his June 9 appointment with unbeaten IBF lightwelterweight champion Timothy Bradley. Now a Congressman from Sarangani, Pacquiao plans to run for governor next year as he will be a year shy of the minimum age of 35 to be eligible as a candidate for senator. Pacquiao will be cleared to go for the Senate in 2016. By 2022, he will be eligible to run for president who must be at least 40.
In his book ?Pacman: My Story of Hope, Resilience and Never-Say-Never Determination? co-authored with Timothy James, Pacquiao said, ?I?m asked if my congressional seat is just one more stepping stone to someday becoming president of the Philippines ? I won?t shut that door, I know I?ll never forget the moment when Bob (Arum) burst into my room to tell me, ?You won, Mr. Congressman!? I guess the news even stunned him ? Maybe one day, Bob will burst through my door and say, ?Congratulations, Mr. President!?? In 2007, Pacquiao lost a congressional election to Darlene Antonino-Custodio in General Santos City but bounced back three years later, to book a seat at the Lower House. Not known to back down from a challenge, Pacquiao wouldn?t be denied a victory in his second attempt.
?Life is uncertain, especially in politics,? said Arum, quoted by Ed Graney in the Las Vegas Review Journal. ?But this is the plan, that the end of his boxing career is in 2013, I would like his final fight to be in the Philippines as a sort of a victory lap. And that will be it. If any of it happens with (Floyd) Mayweather or without Mayweather, I could care less. For Manny, boxing is just a step in the road to much bigger things ? to president of his country and then maybe world leader. His plans are about the greater good for his people. He certainly doesn?t need to fight Mayweather to make that happen.?
Graney said, ?His long-term plan goes something like this: He will fight through 2013 and then likely unopposed, run for governor of Sarangani province ? he will then run for the Senate in 2016 and if the political stars align, for president in 2022.? Graney said, ?The Filipino population?s adoration of Pacquiao the boxer ? and its dynamic potential at the ballot box ? weighs more heavily on this decision than the self-styled Money Mayweather?s continued prevaricating about facing the PacMan in the megabucks fight the whole world wants to see.?
Arum confirmed Pacquiao?s eligibility as a presidential candidate in 2022. ?We have been discussing three more fights then the end of boxing for Manny while he campaigns for the governorship, then for the Philippine Senate in 2016 then turning 40 (in 2018) and thereby becoming eligible to run for president in 2022.?
Chris Mannix, writing in Sports Illustrated (Nov. 7, 2011) said the way is clear for Pacquiao to blossom as a politician. ?Pacquiao is a philanthropist,? he said. ?He gives food and money away. He finances government projects out of his own pocket. Pacquiao was elected to the Congress of the Philippines in 2010 in which he has supported bills that have improved infrastructure, created (and partly financed) a program that will offer financial support to high school kids and will soon break ground on Sarangani province?s first public hospital. Politics is his future. In 2013, Pacquiao will run for governor in Sarangani, likely unopposed. In nine years, Pacquiao will likely run for president. Today, he is focused on pleasing a crowd. Soon it will be securing his country?s future. ?I was a boy with nothing,? says Pacquiao. ?I love boxing but it?s in my power to help my people. There is nothing I want more than that.??
In Top Rank?s four-page USA Today insert, Pacquiao?s political future was put in perspective. ?Congressman Pacquiao, the lone representative from the province of Sarangani, was elected by a landslide in the spring of 2010 in one of the biggest upsets in the history of modern Philippine politics,? the lead story in the insert said. ?Per the Philippine Constitution, Pacquiao will not be eligible to run for president until 2022 when he?ll be 44 (by December of that year). For now, just as he has sought and won world titles in eight different weight divisions, Pacquiao has his political sights on different elective offices, including the Sarangani governorship in 2013. Will Pacquiao run for president in 2022? Perhaps, not even Manny knows yet.?
