Pacquiao faces toughest fight in rural Philippines

Alabel: Boxing champion Manny Pacquiao may have won in the recent Philippine elections but the challenges he faces as a politician are more formidable than any ring opponent.

The world champion made many campaign promises to the people of the impoverished southern province of Sarangani to get elected as their representative in the nation's parliament. And they expect him to deliver.

"He said whether he wins or loses, he will build a hospital for Sarangani," said Michelle Bargo, 25, a housewife, recalling one of Pacquiao's promises.

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That commitment is widely remembered in the province where the population of more than 400,000 do not have a single hospital to serve them.

Pacquiao, 31, said repeatedly during the campaign his priorities as congressman would be "livelihood programmes, education, healthcare and medical assistance," although he did not give too many details.

Schools and infrastructure, as well as medical facilities, are all in short supply in the 4,500-square kilometre province where over half the population live in poverty, according to government figures.

Even in Alabel, the provincial capital, many streets are just dirt roads and many houses are made largely of thatch.

Promises for a better life helped propel Pacquiao to a landslide victory over Roy Chiongbian, a member of a powerful clan that ruled Sarangani for decades, in the May 10 national elections.

It was also vindication for the boxer who lost an earlier bid for the congressional seat of nearby General Santos City in 2007.

"A lot of people are underestimating my capability to serve the people. I want to show them they are all wrong," he said in a recent interview with ABS-CBN television.

He insisted he could perform his duties as a congressman even while pursuing his boxing career - possibly even facing American Floyd Mayweather for a long-awaited match in November, a prospect that appeared to move a step closer on Saturday when Pacquiao said his mother had given the bout the go-ahead.

Pacquiao, who grew up dirt-poor in General Santos, has said that his humble beginnings make him more sympathetic to the needs of the people of Sarangani.

But it was his fabulous earnings from boxing prizes, commercial endorsements and showbiz appearances that allowed him to spend freely to seal his election victory.

Pacquiao, who was listed by Forbes magazine last year as the world's sixth highest paid athlete with earnings of $40 million, won wide support in Sarangani by simply giving people gifts and handouts.

Alfonso Singcoy, 53, mayor of the town of Malapatan, said he was a Chiongbian loyalist for 15 years but he switched to Pacquiao's side after the boxer got him the fire truck he asked for.

"I thought it was a joke but one month later, he called up and said 'buddy, come down and pick up your fire truck' and there it was," said Singcoy.

Newly-built gymnasiums, potable water, electricity in churches and mosques, scholarships for students and funerals for the deceased, all came courtesy of candidate Pacquiao, said the mayor.

Pacquiao's "People's Champ Movement" also provided campaign funds to many officials running for re-election, Singcoy and other officials said.

"You have to spend to win and Pacquiao can spend because he has money," said Father Art Pancho, the parish vicar for Alabel.

Despite his free-spending ways, Pancho believes Pacquiao is sincere in his efforts to help the poor.

Pancho recalled that when he served in General Santos in the 1990s, a very humble Pacquiao would sponsor Catholic masses before and after each fight.

His inexperience in politics does not worry the priest, who said Pacquiao could easily hire experts and consultants to give him advice.

But Pancho is troubled by how Pacquiao often associates with powerful politicians and big-spending gamblers who may be a bad influence on him.

"What happens there, we still don't know. That is still to be seen," Pancho said.

And as she sat in her dirt-floor house with dogs roaming the grounds, housewife Bargo said voters would turn against Pacquiao if they saw no change by the next parliamentary elections in 2013.

"Three years can go by really fast," she warned.