Philippine senator and boxing star Manny Pacquiaor, will run as a candidate for president in the 2022 elections in the Philippines after being nominated in a congress held by his party, PDP-Laban.
“Yes, I accept,” he said Pacquiao, 42, in a speech in front of a giant screen in which you could see videos of the fighting of the Filipino fighter, who holds a record of twelve world titles in eight different categories.
Pacquiao, elected to Congress in 2010 and Senator in 2016, was an ally and party partner of Philippine President Rodrigo DutertandBut in June he criticized the president for not facing Beijing in the diplomatic conflict over the disputed waters of the South China Sea.
A month later, the boxer denounced alleged cases of corruption in the government aid program for covid-19.
This caused an internal war in the PDP Laban (Philippine Democratic Party-Power of the People) between the faction that supports Pacquiao and the one that supports Duterte.
Last August, the PDP Laban camp that supports Duterte he nominated him as a vice presidential candidate, as Philippine law prevents presidents from running for re-election.
A symptom of this rupture is that the party’s accounts on Twitter and Facebook are in the hands of the faction of Pacquiao, while the website still maintains the photo of Duterte.
The president, an authoritarian leader who has built a reputation for ruthlessness with his bloody war on drugs, has branded Pacquiao opportunist for criticizing him now after having supported him for five years.
Duterte He is a favorite in the polls and some analysts suggest he could perform with his daughter Sara, mayor of the city of Davao, as a candidate for the presidency.
Pacquiao, who is idolized by millions of Filipinos, has created controversy in the past for saying he opposes gay marriages as a sin against God and for supporting the death penalty, which is not recognized in the Philippines.