Pacquiao will have to wait several years more to run for vice president

Manila: Although Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao is willing to run for the vice presidency in 2016, will have to wait several years more to be eligible to run for the second highest public office in the Philippines.

Reports said that Pacquiao, during his press tour to in Mexico to promote his November bout with Mexican rival Juan Manuel Marquez, had revealed plans to seek the vice presidential mandate vice in 2016.

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But the now 32-year-old boxer and Congressional Representative for Sarangani province is not yet eligible to run for the vice presidency even if the race is still five years down the road. The reason---the Philippine Constitution prescribes that aspirants for the presidency and the vice presidency be at least 40 years old on the day of the election.

Pacquiao will just be 37 by the time the elections are held on May 2016. The Filipino boxing icon was born on December 17, 1978.

Article VII, Section 2 of the Philippine Constitution states: "No person may be elected President unless he is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines , a registered voter, able to read and write, at least forty years of age on the day of the election…"

Pacquiao, who had been basking in popularity as a boxer for nearly a decade had clearly shown winnability in electoral contest when he secured the mandate of Sarangani voters during the 2010 polls. In the same breath, he is no stranger to defeat after he was beaten in the polls for congressional representative of his original congressional district in 2007 by Darlene Antonino, a local charmer whose family has established political roots in South Cotabato.

According to Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Sixto Brillantes, if Pacquiao is really bent on seeking higher political office, she could consider being elected in a national contest such as the senatorial elections of seek another mandate in Sarangani, as a governor.