President Rodrigo Duterte raised hand of Manny Pacquiao during his courtesy call at the Malacañang.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threw joke that Senator Manny Pacquiao may, one day, become president of the Philippines.
This was done by the president when Pacquiao paid a courtesy call at the Malacañang after his unanimous win against Jessie Vargas in Las Vegas, Nevada, last November 5.
While raising the hand of Pacquiao, Duterte was heard saying, “For president na ‘to ha.”
During the courtesy call, Duterte, who also hails from Mindanao, congratulated Pacquiao for his victory.
“I would like to send the warmest congratulations of the Filipino people and govt to the senator for doing us proud,” Duterte said.
In year 2013, Pacquiao confirmed his ambition to become a president to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Also, during the days where the Filipino boxing legend prepares for the bout against American Floyd Mayweather, Pacquiao’s American promoter, Bob Arum, reignited Pacquiao-the-politician talk when he said his client had a strategy laid-out for a presidential run.
“He is going to be a president,” Arum told paparazzi website TMZ. “He is going to run for the Senate of the Philippines in 2016 and then 2022 or maybe later he’ll run for president.”
In May 9, 2016 elections, Pacquiao ran for the Senate under the ticket of United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) of former Vice President Jejomar Binay, where he received more than 16 million votes from the Filipinos to rank seventh among the 12 winning senators.
He will be qualified to run for president in the 2022 elections.
After his win against Vargas, there are rumors that there will be a rematch between Pacquiao and Floy Mayweather Jr. who defeated him in 2015.
Recently, Pacquiao posted a picture of himself wearing a special new jacket – which a picture of himself fighting the American sewn into the lining.
The post follows on from Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter for Top Rank, saying a Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch has a ’75 per cent’ chance of happening.
