Will Manny Pacquiao's political aspirations hurt his boxing?

As a child, Manny Pacquiao slept on the dirt floor of a hut in the Philippines. The mythical painful story of his father eating the boy's own dog still haunts.

Pacquiao, now considered the world's top boxer, has earned tens of millions of dollars because of his athletic gifts. His U.S. business manager said Pacquiao recently purchased a $2.4-million home in Hancock Park with five bedrooms.

As his countrymen still navigate extreme poverty with flawed political leadership making things worse, Pacquiao feels their pain and wants to help. He plans to run for a congressional seat in his native country, where he is adored as "The People's Champion." He will decide which seat he'll pursue by the end of November, his business manager Michael Koncz said this week, and the election is in May.

Those closest to Pacquiao's boxing activities, chiefly trainer Freddie Roach, understand the boxer's mission to assist his country's poorest -- he often hands out dollars to the needy outside his home -- but they would rather have him chase a politician's seat when his fighting career is over.

"Manny thinks differently, but I believe he cannot do both," Roach told The Times this week as he and Pacquiao resume training in Hollywood this week after 31 days of conditioning and fight-planning in the Philippines in advance of Pacquiao's Nov. 14 world welterweight title fight in Las Vegas against Puerto Rico's Miguel Cotto.

On HBO's "24/7" reality series documenting the Pacquiao-Cotto fight, it was notable that Cotto has spent more weeks training than Pacquiao and seems to be more focused on the task at hand. At one point in the show, Pacquiao blew off a strong Roach request to leave the Philippines earlier than planned because of another oncoming typhoon, forcing Roach to interrupt the boxer's meeting with a politician the next day to insist it was time to go -- with an expletive tossed in.

I was talking with Roach on Tuesday about how his relationship with Pacquiao is beginning to rank among the most successful trainer-fighter relationships in the sport's history, along with Angelo Dundee and Muhammad Ali, Eddie Futch and Joe Frazier and a few others, when Roach admitted the most significant divide is their disagreement over the boxer's political future.

Roach worked to shield the sympathetic Pacquiao from the devastation of the typhoons that ravaged the Philippines while they trained. Although Pacquiao once made a long trek to visit survivors near Manila, Roach urged him to stay back at training camp as the trainer and a Pacquiao friend later visited La Trinidad-Biguit, where 325 died in a typhoon.

"It was a farming area that was completely wiped out," Roach said. "I spoke to the kids there and told them Manny wished he could be there. We saw a lot of people and tried to make them happy, but there's only so much you can do. All the men were out digging through the mud, because three people were still missing."

Roach's party came to the area with truckloads of wood needed to build caskets for the dead. At one point, he was taken into a funeral home and saw corpses "stacked 10 high. ... That's why I went. I didn't want Manny to see that. He'd get too upset.

"He has this fight to think about. We want to keep him focused on that."

That's the ultimate test now as Pacquiao challenges the naturally bigger world champion.

--Lance Pugmire

Photo: Manny Pacquiao. Credit: Denis Poroy, AP.

Comments

[Jethro]

This sounds all good and very heart warming, but unfortunately...it's not all true!

[tony]

Pacquiao's political spirations will NOT hurt boxing, but will definitely hurt his popularity in the Philippines. Going politics is a sure way to divide people and right now Pacquiao is succeeded in doing just that among his people. You'll see a lot of negative comments in forums about Pacquiao nowadays.

[Warlock]

This is a negative article, puts the Phils. In bad light not all of the country is impoverished the writer has probbly never been in the Philippines.

[Verballistic]

The previous time Pacman ran for political office in the Phillippines, his opponent said she was a huge Pac fan and that as a boxer he could serve a much more useful role as ambassador to the world!! Not surprisingly, she won the election handily...

[eyeopener]

Yes its true that most of the philippines is indeed impoverished and the writer really described it aptly if not vividly. Filipinos should stop deceiving themselves that we are still at par with our asian nation, but we do are at par with bangladesh, sri lanka, myanmar and indonesia. Leptospiroses cases by thousands!!!! can only be seen in impoverished nation, New orleans were flooded by weeks and yet cases of Leptos haven't spiked to thousand. So I do symphatize with Pacquiao who wants to help the peole through Politics, but I hope that at this point in time of his career he will prioritize his God given talent in boxing.

[Pacquiao vs Cotto update]

It would not hurt boxing but why taint his (Pacquiao) track record with a loss on the political scene. Totally useless to be with those traditional politicians. He can still help his countryman even if he is not in office.

For your latest Pacquiao vs Cotto update, visit http://pacquiao-vs-cotto.cebuspace.com/

[Jethro]

How in the world is he gonna run an office, where he can't even run his own team? What a joke.

[Jimmy]

if manny could read this...my advice to him is don't mire yourself in politics...it's a dirty game especially in the philippines...it's a corrupt world and every filipino knows that...manny can do more to his country by just being himself...

[johny b]

pacman will be one of those guys who had been on top and suddenly will collaped

the way he acts today, buying expensive house in US, which we know that tax is higher than the house itself and his again political aspiration that will cause him more money in campaigning

this guy will go to a downward spiral, if he will not use his head

too many people are using this guy and when the time comes that he is not the guy for them, they will leave him empty

[greg]

I disagree with eyeopener and I should say Americans, in general, should try to be less provincial when describing the situations of other countries. Yes many Filipinos still live in poverty, but which country in the world doesn't have its own share of poor people?

Extreme poverty indeed. The writer makes it sound like a war-ravaged, backwater country. You people should read more and travel more because even your journalists are bimbos.

Oh yes, Paris is actually the capital of the France, not Italy, in case you people are wondering.

[E-man]

Guys on this site please give Pac man a chance to prove what he can do!!! If after the fact we see he cant dod the do then we judge!!