Pacquiao gears up for 2022 presidential election
By Leo Reyes
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 27 Jan 2020
When Bob Arum disclosed to media his prediction about Manny Pacquiao’s political career, he wasn’t sure if he would still be around come presidential election time in the Philippines in 2022.
Arum, who is now 88 years old, served as Pacquiao’s promoter for over a decade. He made Pacquiao one of the richest politicians in the Philippines with his highly-patronized boxing fights that include among others the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight that garnered more than $500 million in pay-per-view buys and other revenues, making it the richest fight in boxing history.
In 2011, Arum predicted that Pacquiao will be elected president of the Philippines in the 2022 presidential election.
"It's 2022, that's the year Manny would become eligible to run for the presidency," Arum said before Pacquiao's open media workout according to Examiner.com back in 2011.
"That would be, to me, the biggest achievement of my career, to see this kid how far he has come and how far he can gone.
Pacquiao on the campaign trail.
"But I hope I will be alive to see it. I will be age 91. I won't be dancing, I will be in the hospice by then," Arum said with a hearty laugh.(Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/sports/op-ed-manny-pacquiao-needs-senate-seat-for-higher-political-agenda/article/437541#ixzz6C9CryN8L)
While Arum and Pacquiao have gone separate ways, the Hall of Fame promoter had promised Pacquiao he will help in whatever way he can during the election campaign.
Pacquiao’s presidential ambition surfaced when he got elected as representative of the lone district of Sarangani in southern Philippines in 2010. His stint as representative of the district gave him the opportunity to learn more about politics and public service.
After serving the district for two terms, Pacquiao needed to validate his election chances on a national scale.
As representative of the district, his constituency was limited to his district. Realizing the need for a national constituency as a necessary tool in his presidential campaign, Pacquiao wanted to test his vote-getting prowess on a national scale. In 2016, he ran for senator and ended garnering more than 16 million votes to rank No.7 among 12 elected senators.
Pacquiao’s performance in the senate race was a “shot-in-the arm” for his presidential ambition. As senator, he now has a national constituency that could push him to plunge into the 2022 presidential race.
The country’s electorate is basically made up of voters belonging to the AB and CD economic/social classes. The A and B representing the rich and middle classes while the C and D representing the masses.
It is a known fact that Pacquiao has the support of the masses, having identified himself as part the masses or the poor as he once was.
The AB class would obviously vote for professional or educated career official. But the number of voters in the AB class is very much less than the voters representing the poor or the masses.
The resulting equation does not favor the A & B class because they represent lesser number of voters compared to the C& D class.
Obviously Pacquiao will get a windfall from the voters belonging to the masses and this is good for his chances of getting elected. However, many voters especially those belonging to the C class would tend to look down on Pacquiao’s qualifications as the AB class would do and this is where Pacquiao needs to remedy to improve is educational qualification.
Pacquiao has recently graduated with a degree in political science from the University of Makati. This will definitely influence voter’s preferences. There ae reports that Pacquiao, along with Sen. Coco Pimentel will be working on their master’s degree at the Harvard University. (This is going to be the topic of my next article).
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Leo Reyes.
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