Pacquiao announces bid for Senate

MANILA, Philippines - No longer a reigning world champion but too young to run for president, boxing icon Manny Pacquiao is setting his sights on the Senate in 2016.

Pacquiao, whose boxing took him away most of the time from his duties as a congressional representative of his wife’s home province of Sarangani, announced his bid for the Senate yesterday when he delivered his State of the District Address at the provincial gymnasium in the capital town of Alabel.

He said that after the end of his second term as congressman, he will continue his public service in “new levels of responsibility.”

His brother, Roel, is expected to run for congressman of Sarangani to replace him.

The fighting congressman did not say under which party he will run but he is allied with Vice President Jejomar Binay’s United Nationalist Alliance.

Both the ruling Liberal Party and the camp of Sen. Grace Poe are wooing Pacquiao, who is rating well in the senatorial surveys, to be part of their respective senatorial slates.

His wife, Jinkee, is currently vice governor of Sarangani.