Pacquiao guest speaker in PSA Awards

MANILA, Philippines - Boxing icon Manny Pacquiao will grace the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Awards Night on March 5 at the Manila Hotel.

But the 32-year-old Pacquiao will be there not to accept an award, an old habit of his, but to deliver a speech as main speaker and guest of honor.

Pacquiao, the only boxer in history to win eight world titles in as many weight divisions, is also a congressman in the lone district of Sarangani.

Pacquiao has confirmed his attendance to the star-studded, annual affair but said he might come late because of a previous commitment. 

The event is set at 7 p.m. at the Manila Hotel.

Pacquiao will grace a golf tournament at the Fontana Leisure Park in Pampanga in the morning, and its awarding ceremony in the evening as well.

The tournament will benefit one of the many projects Pacquiao has lined up for his province.

“I will take a chopper from Pampanga if needed so I will make it to the PSA awards. I think Manila Hotel has a landing pad anyway,” he said.

“Or maybe I can land at the Luneta,” he said, adding that he will request the organizers of the golf tournament to push the dinner an hour earlier.

The PSA, which is the country’s oldest media organization, will honor the top sports achievers of the year 2010.

It marks the first time in its 62-year history that an active Filipino athlete will serve as guest of honor and speaker in the yearly affair.

Pacquiao had already been elevated to the PSA Hall of Fame for being named Athlete of the Year five times in between 2002 to 2008.

Last year, he was named Athlete of the Decade by the same group of editors and sportswriters from the different national broadsheets and tabloids.

His appearance in the event also presented by San Miguel Corp., the Philippine Amusements and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR), Harbour Centre, ICTSI, Samsung, Accel, Nihao Mineral Resources International Inc., and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) comes in the aftermath of his recent one-on-one meeting with US President Barack Obama at the White House.

Pacquiao’s visit to the Oval Office was part of his coast-to-coast US media tour to promote his May 7 world welterweight title fight against American Sugar Shane Mosley.

Three Asia Games gold medal winners (Rey Saludar, Biboy Rivera and Dennis Orcollo) and billiards Hall of Famer Francisco “Django” Bustamante will be honored as the 2010 Athletes of the Year.

Pacquiao will begin his two-month training for the Mosley fight on March 7.

Aside from Pacquiao and the four Athletes of the Year awardees, a number of honorees are likewise expected to add glitter and glamor to the two-hour program.

The highly popular Philippine men’s football team is the year’s recipient of the PSA Presidential Achievement Award, while Azkals team manager Dan Palami will be honored as Executive of the Year.

The silver medalists in the last Asiad and the world champion men’s poomsae team lead the 14 personalities to be accorded with a major award, the Amateur Boxing Association of the Philippines (ABAP) is the National Sports Association of the Year, billiards icon Efren “Bata” Reyes and former FIDE president Florencio Campomanes are going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, and the pair of international ring referee Carlos Padilla and coaching great Virgilio “Baby” Dalupan will be feted with a Lifetime Achievement Award.