Word: boxer
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...golfer, but he can't be, let's say, a race-car driver. We have our limitations and our skills." He believes Pacquiao's popularity plays against him: many voters don't want their national hero dirtying his hands in politics. "People like to see him as a boxer, not a politician," says Chiongbian, who has never run for public office before...
...deep in your heart. It's easy." Pacquiao is also devout, which could win the support of bloc-voting church groups. "The most important thing as a leader is your relationship with God," he tells the crowd while campaigning in Kiamba, where many people wear T-shirts bearing the boxer's face and the slogan, in English, "For God and Country...
Legendary American trainer Freddie Roach is credited with turning Pacquiao from a promising boxer into a world champion. It's unclear if he has a political Roach, or if the ferociously single-minded Pacquiao would listen anyway. "I advised him not to run," says Luis Singson, political kingpin of the northern province of Ilocos Sur, who gave Pacquiao the bulletproof Hummer that ferries him around Manila and who shares his passion for cockfighting and gambling. "I told him, 'Give priority to your boxing. Later on you can go into politics.' But he's committed already." What are his chances...
...warns that gambling will drain Pacquiao's fortune and besmirch his populist image. "I told him, 'People look at you as their idol. It's bad if they see you gambling.' So now he's stopped [going to] casinos already." Really? Less than two days after his homecoming, the boxer could be spotted playing Texas Hold'em at a windowless poker joint in Manila in the small hours. Peering protectively through nearby pot plants was his Canadian über-gofer Mike Koncz, who sat next to a bag of money. Twelve hours later, Pacquiao was still playing...
...political analyst de Vera estimates Pacquiao will have to spend up to $2 million "to stand a chance of winning." That's nothing by the standards of U.S. elections, but a fortune in a rural backwater with only about 270,000 registered voters. Eric Pineda, one of the boxer's bewildering array of advisers, calls $2 million a "paltry" sum. Another adviser, Jeng Gacal, says "the sky's the limit" when it comes to election spending...