Senator Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao Sr.

, famously known as Manny

Pacquiao, is best known for his boxing career, and is considered as one of the best
professional boxers in the whole world. Due to his huge accomplishments and
influence in this sport, he was given the title of “Pambansang Kamao ng Pilipinas”,
and “The People’s Champ”.
Far from what Manny Pacquiao is mainly known for, the said boxer had decided
to enter the Philippine political scene in 2007 as he run for congress in the city of
South Cotabato. Opposing from everyone’s expectations, Pacquiao had lost against his
competitor, Darlene Antonino Custodio. Despite this loss, Pacquiao didn’t stop
attempting to enter the congress as he had filed another candidacy as a congressman
on his wife’s hometown, Sarangani. Pacquiao was finally able to obtain his win on the
2010 elections and extended his term after winning the 2013 elections.
In 2016, Pacquiao has decided to step up and sought for a seat in the
Philippine Senate. Pacquiao had filed his senatorial candidacy under the PDP-Laban
party list or the Partido Demotratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan party list. However, this
decision didn’t receive good feedback from the public. Pacquiao was heavily criticized,
not only by the public but by other political figures as well, for his poor and
disappointing performance as a congressman. With a 6 year-long term as a Sarangani
congressman, Pacquiao was only able to attend 98 out of 168 session days due to his
boxing career. Pacquaio was also criticized for the number of laws he was able to pass
from 2010 to 2016, he was only able to pass a total of 7 laws during his time as a
congressman in which only one of these was principally authored by him and was only
a co-author of the other 6. Another reason why Pacquiao was heavily criticized was
because of his unclear real educational background. After numerous speculations
from the public, Notre Dame of Dadiangas University in General Santos City had
finally spoken up about Pacquiao’s educational affiliation with them. The university
revealed that Manny has only completed 2 semesters of BSBA-Marketing Management
Program on the academic year 2007-2008 and transferred his credentials to the
University of Makati in 2019 and later graduated with Bachelor of Science degree in
political science, only after a year of studying. However, according to Rigoberto Tiglao,
a famous news author, the degree is a bogus, and completing a four-year course for a
bachelor’s degree is only possible through Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency
and Accreditation Program or ETEEAP. Responding to the accusations, the University
of Makati denied the usage of ETEEAP on Pacquiao’s acquisition of a degree but used
their own program that is somehow similar with ETEEAP instead, which makes
everything further questionable. Despite all the negative feedback and criticisms
Pacquiao got, he was still able to win after placing 7 th and has garnered over
15,592,390 votes.
Is Pacquiao's 'college degree' fake? - Rigoberto Tiglao

Notre Dame University Exposes Manny Pacquiao's Real Education Status (philnews.ph)

Pacquiao set to return to Congress, wife joins politics (rappler.com)

Who wants to fight Pacquiao? (rappler.com)

Boxer Manny Pacquaio Wins Seat in Philippines Congress - TIME

As Philippine congressman, Pacquiao seen as underachieving - ELEKSYON 2022

FALSE: Pacquiao did not pass any law in 11 years as legislator (rappler.com)