National icon: Pacquiao announcing he will run for president in the 2022 elections at the recent national convention of his PDP-Laban party in Quezon city. — AP
SENATOR Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao’s decision to run for the presidency next year is at once shocking and totally unsurprising. Sure, the boxer-turned-politician’s ambitions for the highest office were always an open secret. Pacquiao himself made his intentions pretty clear when he confessed: “I boxed to become a world champion. Any politician – even a barangay (local district) chairman – dreams of becoming president.”
It remains to be seen, on the other hand, what the next episode would be in the Duterte dynasty telenovela. But regardless of what presidential daughter Sara Duterte and her father decide to do come November, when the “substitute” candidate deadline option kicks in, the race for Malacañang looks extremely prohibitive for former administration allies such as Pacquiao.
