Pacquiao vows to stamp out corruption if elected next Philippine president
Shrugging off his low ratings in the opinion polls, Philippine politician and former boxing star Manny Pacquiao on Thursday (April 7) said his impoverished roots make him the best person to be president, as he warned voters to avoid corruption-tainted candidates.
In a jab at the current frontrunner for the May 9 election, Pacquiao questioned why people were supporting Ferdinand Marcos Jr, pointing to the plundering of the country's wealth during the harsh authoritarian rule of his late father and namesake. Marcos's family was accused of plundering an estimated $10 billion during his late father's two-decade rule.
Pacquiao, an incumbent senator who has made fighting corruption a centrepiece of his presidential campaign, is trailing in fourth place on 6% in the latest opinion poll, well behind Marcos, who is leading with 56% support. If elected president, Pacquiao has vowed to strengthen efforts to recover billions of dollars missing since the fall of the Marcos dictatorship, as part of his anti-graft platform.
The only man to hold boxing world titles in eight different divisions, Pacquiao retired from boxing in September after the sport propelled him to fame and fortune from humble beginnings as a dirt-poor youngster doing odd jobs to survive.
