Manila, Philippines – Filipino boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao flew home to a hero’s welcome on Monday after defending his world title and immediately began a political fight he said was aimed at helping the nation’s poor.
Wearing a jacket and tie and accompanied by his wife Jinkee, Pacquiao was met at Manila airport by a throng of press photographers and a group of politicians wanting to share the limelight with boxing’s best pound-for-pound fighter.
"I am very happy that I have returned to the Philippines to be with my children. I thank everyone who supported and prayed for me in my last fight," he said.
Pacquiao defeated Ghana’s Joshua Clottey in Texas last week to retain his World Boxing Organization welterweight title.
Opposition senator Manuel Villar, a millionaire property developer who is one of the leading candidates for the presidency in the May 10 national elections, was among those who met Pacquiao at the airport.
Pacquiao, 31, is running under Villar’s Nacionalista Party for a House of Representatives seat in the southern Philippine province of Sarangani.
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