PACQUIAO AND POLITICS (PART I)
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 08 Oct 2015
When eight-division world champion Congressman Manny Pacquiao officially announced his bid to run as Senator of the Republic of the Philippines it solicited mixed reactions from the Filipino electorate.
?In the coming days, I will be embracing new levels of responsibility,? he told constituents during his state of the district address at Saranggani. ?I will be confronting tough challenges. My second term as your congressmen will soon be over, but I will continue to be of service you and to our fellow Filipinos.?
Netizens heavily criticized him on his move to run for the highest legislative position of the land. He was the representative with the most number of absences in Congress with the excuse of fighting for the country in his professional boxing bouts.
Pacquiao promised he would be not be an absentee senator. "I will not be absent because the whole country would be my responsibility,"
Others were even more critical about Pacquiao's law-making ability citing his limited educational attainment as compared to lawyers and professionals among the 24 senators.
Incumbent Senator Lito Lapid is on a similar situation as Pacquiao. An action star who had not finished college, he serves the Senate for almost twelve years now after being elected as governor and vice governor of Pampanga. Considered a "Senate misfit" Lapid principally authored one of the meaningful social legislations of the 14th Congress, the Free Legal Assistance Act of 2010 which seeks to ensure that the poor may be afforded free quality legal service. He ranked 4th in the 14th Congress and fifth in the 15th Congress in the most number of bills and resolutions filed.
According to the official website of the Senate of the Philippines, Lapid authored the Meat Labeling Act of 2011, Comprehensive Unilateral Hearing Loss Research and Development and Rehabilitation Act, Urban Agriculture and Vertical Farming Act, Corporate Social Responsibility Act, Kindergarten Education Act, and the Adopt-A-Wildlife Species Act, among others.
Philippine politics is known for the electorate choosing candidates based on popularity and name recall. Only few voters would care to listen to the programs of government of the candidates. In a Pulse Asia survey on awareness, Pacquiao topped all prospective senatorial candidates with an awareness rating of 99% because it was done right after his fight with Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
And in the latest Pulse Asia senatorial survey, Pacquiao is placed No. 8 as follows:
Vicente Sotto III : 63.6%
Panfilo Lacson: 59.3%
Ferdinand Marcos Jr. 54.9%
Franklin Drilon: 48.2%
Francis Pangilinan: 46.6%
Ralph Recto: 45.4%
Juan Miguel Zubiri: 41.4%
Manny Pacquiao: 39.6%
Sergio Osme?a III: 38.7%
Richard Gordon: 36.8%
Mark Villar: 35.8%
Jamby Madrigal: 35.2%
Leila de Lima: 35.2%
Lino Edgardo Cayetano: 34.2%
In the latest Social Weather Station senatorial survey, Pacquiao is placed at No. 9 as follows:
Vicente Sotto III : 54%
Panfilo Lacson : 47%
Ralph Recto : 43%
Franklin Drilon : 42%
Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. : 40%
Francis Pangilinan : 40%
Leila de Lima: 33%
Juan Miguel Zubiri : 32%
Manny Pacquiao: 30%
Richard Gordon: 29%
Sergio Osme?a III : 28%
Mark Villar : 24%
Teofisto Guingona III : 23%
Ma. Leonor Robredo : 23%
Pacquiao is a shoo-in for the Senate because of immense popularity. It is his great challenge to prove negative critics wrong that he is not qualified to be in the Upper Legislative Chamber. He is slated to engage in one more fight before the elections next year and consider retiring when he gets a Senate seat.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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