Pacman inaugurates plush carpeted office

If not for his colorful pictures framed on the wall, one wouldn’t think that this neat, carpeted office at the 14th floor of the Tektite East Tower in Ortigas belongs to Manny Pacquiao.

But it does.

In fact, this 109 —square meter office being rented for almost P50,000 a month was formally blessed and inaugurated yesterday. From now on, all of Pacquiao’s business transactions will go through this office.

"He needs an office like this. Now everything that has to deal with Manny goes through here. And this way he will be able to monitor everything," said Relly de Leon, a Pacquiao associate.

"This office makes him a certified businessman which he really is. Everything concerning his fights, his recording business, his line of apparel, endorsements, his movies and other shows and promotions will be pass through this office," added De Leon.

With the blessing of his new office, Pacquiao also officially became president of Manny Pacquiao Promotions. He gave away a few of his calling cards to friends.

Pacquiao has an elegant office with a wooden desk, a reclining leather chair, an LCD personal computer and a couple of phone lines. There’s an adjacent conference room, which could seat a dozen people.

"Manny wants a big flat screen set up in this conference room so it could hold tele-conference sessions with important people from the US and any other part of the globe. He wants everything to be impressive and truly international," De Leon also said.

The Tektite property will also serve as Pacquiao’s legal and accounting offices.

Pacquiao’s American manager Shelly Finkel, lawyer Nicholas Khan and trainer Freddie Roach arrived for the inauguration around 3 p.m., ahead of the Filipino boxer.

They all looked satisfied with what they saw.

"Better than mine because mine is in a boxing gym," said Roach who flew in yesterday morning with Finkel and Khan, who said the office looked "great."

"There were a lot of security downstairs," Khan also noticed.

They were all inside Pacquiao’s office when the fighter from Gen. Santos City came in wearing a brown polo shirt, Levi’s jeans, leather shoes and his brand-new Rolex watch worth almost P3 million.

Pacquiao arrived with his lovely wife Jinkee and their two sons Emmanuel and Michael.

As he entered his office, Pacquiao looked so happy to see his American visitors.

Finkel was then sitting on Pacquiao’s chair, but as he tried to get up, was prevailed upon by his boxer.

"No, no. It’s okay. You can sit there," said Pacquiao.

Then there was laughter. Shortly after, they buckled down to work - this time inside the conference room. — Abac Cordero