Pacman: One last fight before next year’s polls

MANILA, Philippines - World boxing champion and Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao said yesterday he would likely retire next year after one last fight before the May 2016 elections where he will run for senator.

“I think I’m ready to retire. I’ve been in boxing for more than 20 years, ” the 36-year-old Pacquiao said.

Pacquiao turned professional when he was 16 years old and has won 57 fights, including 38 knockouts.

Earlier, he announced his bid for a Senate seat in 2016.

“Being a senator is a huge responsibility and we need to focus on work,” Pacquiao told reporters in Filipino. “I thought about this – the big responsibilities, the things I have to give up among those that I’m involved in – to focus on serving the people.”

He said he has one more fight with Briton Amir Khan, most likely in March next year.

Pacquiao is flying to New York on Oct. 13 to receive the Asia Game Changer Award at the United Nations.

Pacquiao hinted he would run for the Senate under the banner of Vice President Jejomar Binay, presidential candidate of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance.

“There are few candidates who have truly felt what it’s like to be poor. Deep in my heart I feel their poverty, the needs of their families. I slept on sidewalks, sold whatever stuff I could – I experienced all that. I came from there, the small people,” he said.

He answered criticisms that he was often absent at plenary sessions in the House of Representatives.

“Is there still any law that we haven’t passed for the poor? While I’m not often seen in Congress, I’m always at my district,” he said.

When asked about the prospect of him joining Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares in the administration slate, Pacquiao said he holds no rancor against her for filing tax evasion charges against him.

“She’s just doing her job,” he said.

Pacquiao pushed for the immediate passage of the proposed measure seeking to reduce corporate and individual income taxes.

Pacquiao issued the appeal as authors of the bill in the House of Representatives race against time to have the measure approved before the end of the year.

“It’s just a matter of how you manage public funds, which is also taxpayers’ money – you’re just returning it to them,” he said, referring to Malacañang’s warning that the bill will lead to lower government revenues.

Marikina City Rep. Romero Quimbo, chairman of the House committee on ways and means and principal author of the bill, said the measure remains alive in the chamber despite lack of support from Malacañang and the Department of Finance (DOF).

“There’s still time to pass this,” Quimbo said.

He explained that the tax reform effort in the House was in three stages.

Quimbo said Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. was supportive of the passage of the bill.

He said President Aquino instructed Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima to give an official position to Congress during their meeting in Malacañang with Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, author of the measure’s Senate version.

Quimbo said the figures used by the House panel were taken from the DOF, BIR and other agencies.

“If the DOF decides to dribble the issue, then we’ll be forced to pass the bill in the committee,” he said, adding Purisima has two weeks to make his response.

The House is expected to pass the proposed P3.002-trillion national budget for 2016 on Friday and go on a break for the filing of the certificates of candidacy for next year’s elections.