DAVAO CITY—Known for his “habitual” absences in the House of Representatives, Senator-elect Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao on Saturday promised “perfect attendance” once he starts his term as a member of the Senate on June 30.
The eight-division boxing champion who landed seventh among Senate best with 16,050,546 votes in the recent senatorial polls, said that he won’t pursue his dream of winning a gold medal in the Rio Olympics and instead focus on his political career.
“I didn’t accept the Olympics offer because I’ll be starting my new job in the Senate,” Pacquiao told reporters at the Almendras Gym here.
“I’m targeting not to be absent again—the responsibilities are not like in Congress that you only work in your district—this one is nationwide,” he said.
“It would be a disservice to the people who placed me here in this position if during my first months of service, I’ll be absent again.”
Pacquiao said that his victory over American Timothy Bradley last month would be the “final fight” of his career, saying, however, that he might get tempted to get out of retirement for a chance at Olympic glory in August or another mega-buck fight against arch-rival Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Pacquiao said that he chose public service over his love for boxing, admitting that he had a hard time making the decision.
“It hurts me as an athlete that the ultimate dream to get a gold medal can’t be possible anymore. I was excited before because I knew that I have a good fighting chance. We’re not after the money but the gold for the country.”
“But when my numbers [in the surveys] were on the winning circle, that’s when I decided to forego my Rio dreams,” he said.
On Saturday, Pacquiao paid respect and congratulated fellow Mindanaoan, President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, who won by a landslide in the recent national elections.
Pacquiao said that to support Duterte’s legislative agenda, he will be joining the majority to be formed in the Senate.
The boxing icon added that if it’s needed for him to fly back to his original party, the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan from his current party United Nationalist Alliance of Vice President Jejomar Binay “just to express support to Duterte,” he’ll be willingly doing so.
“Why do we need to think of political parties? What’s important is the message of change, let’s support the new administration and its advocacies,” he said.
Pacquiao confirmed that he will remain the coach of the KIA Mahindra Enforcers in the PBA.
While he will remain as the head coach of the Mahindras, he will be taking a more “supervisory” role following his retirement from boxing.