Analysts Shoot Down Manny Pacquiao’s Ambition to Be Philippine President, Cite Lack of Political Experience (VIDEOS)
As expected, eight division title holder Manny Pacquiao's announcement over the weekend of a plan to run for the presidency of the Philippines drew flak.
The furor is not so much of fear over the boxing champ's millions - being the richest congressman in the Philippines - but Pacquiao lacking the political experience needed to be a national leader.
And their fear is not without basis because the Philippines had elected before popular celebrities with lack of a national perspective that they end up damaging the elective positions they had held.
On top of that list if former B actor Joseph Estrada who became president but was thrown out of office for corrupt practices and Senators Ramon Revilla Jr and Lito Lapid, who are considered the silent majority of the Senate, reflecting their lack of understanding of deeper political issues.
Reacting to Mr Pacquiao's admission to AFP of his plans to run for the highest political office in the Philippines, Bobby Tuazon, policy studies director of the Center for People Empowerment in Governance told GMA News, "Is he really serious? It must be a big joke. I hope he was only engaged in humor."
He pointed out that besides the fact that the 34-year-old boxer and now congressman is too young to run as president in the next national election, he said Mr Pacquiao must prove his worth as representative by disclosing his performance at the House of Representatives.
"How can he say he is qualified to run when there are no records to show that he is a credible congressman when he is just banking on his popularity," Mr Tuazon added.
Records show that the boxer-congressman in the top absentee since he attended only 47 of 73 session days in his first year as representative, 27 of 59 on his second year and 41 of 61 on the third year.
Besides the neophyte congressman's poor attendance record, Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reform, pointed to Mr Pacquiao's lack of substantive bills that he has filed in Congress as another proof of the latter's lack of qualification for higher office.
In his first term, Mr Pacquiao filed 12 bills, while for his second term, he refilled three of his old bills and added two new ones. The bulk of his bills are either or local application or focused on sports.
House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte advised Mr Pacquiao to first give the Senate a try before attempting to run for higher office.
Although many Filipino celebrities have lost in recent and past elections, indicating that popularity is not good enough to land them a public post, there are fears of history repeating itself since Mr Estrada has made a comeback as a politician and is now mayor of Manila.
Mr Pacquiao had actually suffered defeat in the hands of a female politician in his first attempt to run for congressman in his birthplace of General Santos City.
