Senator Manny Pacquiao has actual plans to run for President come Halalan 2020, says American boxing promoter Bob Arum. Arum predicted during a live-streamed conversation that the first fighter to become president will be Manny Pacquiao.
“Bob, I’m gonna run in 2022, and when I win, I want you there at my inauguration,” these are the words that the 41-year-old Pacquiao allegedly told Arum over a Zoom meeting. We’ll give the Pacman plus points for boldness and confidence (and audacity?) but as expected, the revelation wasn’t exactly met with warmth.
While Pacquiao is yet to publicly comment on the issue, Filipino Twitter has already reacted negatively to the news.
(Twitter handles blurred because mahirap na.)
‘Ill-equipped’
In the Philippines, being a celebrity or an athlete dooms you to one solid career path: you get famous, you run for mayor at a large city, you become a senator, and then you aspire to become the president of the country. And you do all this while juggling commercial photo shoots and recording an album where you sing, painfully tone-deaf.
Pacquiao is exceptional at boxing; can’t say the same about him being a politician.
Maybe it’s time some politicians admit to themselves that politics is not for them. It’s not embarrassing to accept defeat, it’s even more embarrassing to make yourself look foolish in front of the entire country.
‘Another clown’
Frankly, the Philippines has other pressing matters to deal with. Justice for EJK victims, the #JunkTerrorBillNow petition, the coronavirus pandemic, and the alarming number of Filipinos left unemployed . Now, this news. What a mess!
‘Disappointing’
Do you know what’s sad? This tweet has a point. Sadly, the majority of Filipino voters only know to vote the faces and names familiar to them, bonus points if they can dance and entertain during campaign season. A name and face like Pacquiao’s who won 62 of his 71 boxing matches and who can lower the crime rate in the entire country every time he has a match can definitely win.
‘He doesn’t even attend senate hearings’
Here’s a nice tip for Filipino voters: get to know your politicians, especially those eyeing the presidency, as early as now. What have they done for the country during this pandemic? Have they been true to their campaign? Are they on the side of the Filipino people? Or do they just enjoy their work because they don’t do much and they’re comfortable staying at home?
‘He’s focusing on his career’
He’s focusing on his boxing career, to be specific. How many times has Pacquiao announced that he’s thinking of retiring only to broadcast that he’s once again set to fight someone in the ring?
Living in space might be better at this point
And it’s not just because Pacquiao decided to run for president, it’s because we’re bone-tired from everything that’s happening to this country. The SpaceX crew, the astronauts who left for space days ago, really knew what they were doing. Earth is messed up.
THEREFORE: Vote wisely during Halalan 2022
If you’re upset about this news, you can do your part in educating the people around you. Encourage them to register to vote, if they haven’t already. Encourage them to think critically about the country’s situation and how our current leaders are poorly dealing with it. There is hope. Maybe Halalan 2022 doesn’t have to be as bleak as it seems.
What do you think of Pacquiao running for president come 2022 elections?
