Philippine boxing hero Manny Paquiao should not enter politics at this time, and, as a friend, Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia said yesterday, he would not encourage the Filipino ring icon to go into politics now, not while he is at the peak of his boxing career.
Leonardia said politics will only distract or bother Pacquiao. He said Pacquiao still has many promising fights in his career that will not only bring pride and joy to the Filipinos, but to millions of other people, as well. Leonardia said that if ever Pacquiao wants to join politics, maybe he can do so later.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, has also repeated in several media interviews that he has no plans to join politics.
During his last visit to Bacolod City, Pacquiao endorsed the candidacy of Leonardia before the media and even told the Mayor he is the first one he had endorsed among his many friends.
Leonardia said he did not ask for Pacquiao’s endorsement, but since it was a spontaneous act, he is thankful.
He said he had asked Pacquiao twice to come to Bacolod and he said he will. Pacquiao was very happy with the reception he received in Bacolod before he flew to the U.S., he said. He added that the champion noted that the crowd that welcomed him in Bacolod was bigger than that in his home city, General Santos.
Meanwhile, Leonardia said that during his stay in the States, he met with the Kahirup of Nevada, a group of Bacole?os and Ilonggos, led by Haydee Florentino.
Leonardia was in Los Angeles and in Las Vegas for a week, on the invitation of Pacquiao to be part of his entourage during his third bout with Mexican Erik Morales.
Leonardia said that was the first time he had contacted the Ilonggos in Las Vegas and, through the help of the Kahirup group, he visited former Philippine Basketball Association player Rudy Distrito at the Las Vegas Detention Center. Distrito is from Bacolod City.
He also said that shortly before the Pacquiao-Morales fight in January, he had reactivated the status of the Long Beach sister relationship with Bacolod, that had become dormant in the past years.
Leonardia said he also met with Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster and they discussed the idea of focusing on trade and business relationships and of the plan of the MassKara Festival Committee to stage a MassKara in Long Beach.
He said Foster expressed interest to come to Bacolod.
He also met with the Economic and Business Council in California, Leonardia said.
“I was working there at no cost to the city of Bacolod,” he said. On reports that there had been talk about his transport expenses, Leonardia reiterated that since 1988, when he was councilor, vice mayor and, later on, mayor, he has not spent a single centavo of the city for any of his trips abroad.*CGS
