MANILA – Boxing hero Manny Pacquiao is virtually assured of a seat in the upper house Senate, according to election results Tuesday which take him a step closer to his dream of the Philippines presidency.

Pacquiao, 37, whose rise from desperate street kid to boxing superstar has made him one of the nation’s biggest heroes, retired from boxing last month to become a full-time politician.

With over 91 per cent of voting centres accounted for from Monday’s polls, the winner of an unprecedented eight world championships had garnered 14.94 million votes, more than enough to enter the Senate.

Pacquiao placed eighth out of a field of 50 candidates in a national race where the top 12 win a seat in the upper house, a powerful legislative body that has often served as a springboard to higher office.

Regarded as an icon in the impoverished nation, Pacquiao’s boxing matches have regularly brought the country to a standstill.

The high school dropout has parlayed his sporting successes into a fortune from commercial endorsements, eventually moving into a political career, serving two terms as a congressman.

His foray into government was part of a long-term strategy to become president, a not unrealistic ambition given his wild popularity.

But his critics have charged that he performed poorly in Congress, barely attending sessions, and instead preferring to train for matches, bask in the celebrity limelight, and dabble in professional basketball.

Nevertheless, he campaigned actively for the Senate, touring the nation and delivering impassioned speeches recalling his tough upbringing.

“If a leader has not experienced being poor, he cannot truly feel for the poor,” he said at one campaign rally.

“The children sleeping on the streets, using cardboard boxes for blankets, I know how that feels. I know how it feels to go hungry for whole day, just drinking water to survive.”

During his campaign, Pacquiao promised to help the poor, improve the lot of farmers and teachers, campaign for free education, and – in a nod to his old profession – secure funding for grassroots sports programmes.

“Sports doesn’t get any budget. That is why…. we cannot produce a single gold medal,” he said, referring to the Philippines’ long and so far fruitless quest for Olympic gold.

The boxer, a devout evangelical Christian, generated headlines and lost a valuable Nike sponsorship in February when he described homosexuals as “worse than animals” in a TV interview.

But the comments had far less impact in the Philippines, with surveys showing his popularity slumping only slightly afterwards then quickly recovering.

Answering his critics, who say he is not fit to be a senator because he has little education or track record as an effective lawmaker, Pacquiao has insisted his rags-to-riches story qualifies him for the job.

His election is part of a wave of populism in the Philippines, which saw firebrand politician Rodrigo Duterte win the presidency in a landslide Tuesday.

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AFP, Reuters

DAVAO, Philippines – The Philippines’president-elect, rough-talking city mayor Rodrigo Duterte, announced plans on Tuesday for an overhaul of the country’s system of government that would devolve power from “imperial Manila” to long-neglected provinces.

Duterte’s win in Monday’s poll has not been confirmed, but an unofficial count of votes by an election commission-accredited watchdog showed he had a huge lead over his two closest rivals, both of whom conceded defeat.

By Tuesday afternoon, the ballot count showed Duterte had almost 39 per cent of votes cast. He was more than 6 million votes ahead of the second-placed candidate with 92 per cent of votes counted from an electorate of 54 million.

It is not clear when Duterte’s victory will be officially declared but he is expected to take office on June 30.

Votes were also cast on Monday for vice-president. One day on, counting showed the outgoing administration’s candidate, Maria Leonor Robredo, ahead of the son and namesake of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Duterte’s spokesman, Peter Lavina, told a news conference that the new president would seek a national consensus for a revision of the constitution which would switch from a unitary form of government to a parliamentary and federal model.

The proposal to devolve power from Manila fits with Duterte’s challenge as a political outsider to the country’s establishment, which he has slammed as self-serving and corrupt. “The powerful elites in Manila who will be affected by this system will definitely oppose this proposal,” said Earl Parreno, an analyst at the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms.

Duterte’s spokesman said he would also seek peace agreements with rebel groups in the south of the archipelago, where the outgoing government has been using force to quell militancy.

The 71-year-old’s truculent defiance of political tradition has drawn comparisons with US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, as have his references to his libido.

That tapped into popular disgust with the ruling class over its failure to reduce poverty and inequality despite several years of robust economic growth.

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AFP, Reuters

SOUTH CHINA SEA TALKS

Duterte’s vows to restore law and order also resonated with voters. But his incendiary rhetoric and advocacy of extrajudicial killings to stamp out crime and drugs have alarmed many who hear echoes of the country’s authoritarian past.

US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Daniel Russel told reporters in Vietnam that Washington respected the choice of the Philippine people and “will gladly work with the leader that they select”.

Duterte made a succession of winding, bellicose and at-times comical remarks late on Monday as the votes were being counted, venting over corruption and bad governance and telling anecdotes from his 22 years as mayor of Davao city.

Wearing a casual checked shirt and slouched in a chair, he said corrupt officials should “retire or die” and reiterated his support for police to use deadly force against criminals. “I’ll behave if I become president,” he said, adding that he would not make state visits to countries with cold weather.

In an early indication of his unorthodoxy, Duterte told reporters on Monday that if he became president he would seek multilateral talks to resolve disputes over the South China Sea.

The outgoing administration of President Benigno Aquino has asked a court of arbitration in The Hague to recognise its right to exploit waters in the South China Sea, a case it hoped could bolster claims by other countries against China in the resource-rich waters.

Duterte said negotiations should include Japan, Australia and the United States, which is traditionally the region’s dominant security player and contests China’s development of islands and rocky outcrops in the sea.

The influential Chinese state-run tabloid the Global Times, said that Beijing would not be naive enough to believe that a new president would bring a solution to the South China Sea disputes.

“Only time will tell how far the new leader, be it Duterte or not, will go toward restoring the bilateral relationship.”

FIGHTING THE ESTABLISHMENT

Duterte’s entertaining and profanity-loaded speeches have shed little light on his policies beyond going after gangsters and drug pushers.

He has been vague on what he would do to spur an economy that has averaged growth at around 6 per cent under Aquino.

Duterte said on Monday he had been criticised for not discussing policy but would “hire the best economic minds”.

One of his advisers told Reuters spending on education would be lifted to benefit “disadvantaged regions” and rural development will be prioritised to spread wealth more evenly across the country.

“Everything seems to be in imperial Manila,” said Ernesto Pernia, professor emeritus of economics at the University of the Philippines. “He wants to give more attention to the lagging, the backward regions.”

Pernia said the pursuit of tax evaders and corrupt officials should bolster government revenues to fund extra spending.

MANILA – Geraldine Roman on Tuesday celebrated overcoming “bigotry, hatred and discrimination” as results showed she had become the first transgender politician to win a congressional seat in the predominantly Catholic Philippines.

After her victory in Monday’s election, Roman, 49, is being seen by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community as a source of hope in a country where Church influence means divorce, abortion and same-sex marriage are banned.

“The politics of bigotry, hatred and discrimination did not triumph. What triumphed was the politics of love, acceptance and respect,” Roman told AFP after her victory for a seat in Congress representing the farming province of Bataan just northwest of Manila.

Roman, a Catholic, said she was looking forward to becoming a lawmaker so she could respond to critics who dismissed her as a one-issue politician not to be taken seriously.

“I’m elated, very, very happy. I’m also excited to work. I realise that the burden is bigger because the stereotype of people about the LGBT is we are frivolous, that we have nothing substantial to say, so I have to prove them wrong,” she said.

Roman will be the highest-ranking openly LGBT politician in the Philippines, where other lawmakers have refused to come out for fear of losing support from the Catholic Church and other religious groups.

A political neophyte, Roman will succeed her mother as representative of Bataan, where her family has been a political force for three generations. Her mother had to stand down after serving the maximum number of three terms.

Roman’s father was a former congressman whose death in 2014 prompted her to consider continuing the family legacy.

Political families dominate Philippine politics, from the local to the national level, and belonging to such a dynasty was widely regarded as being crucial to Roman’s success.

Still the constituents of Bataan overwhelmingly endorsed Roman, with the vote count showing she had secured 62 per cent support.

“She is also a human being. We all have rights. It’s not an issue to me that she is transgender,” farmer Bern Salenga, 49, told AFP during a campaign sortie in Roman’s home town before the election.

Roman has been living as a woman for two decades, and proudly wore a pearl necklace and pink lipstick while campaigning.

She had a successful career as senior editor at the Spanish News Agency. She speaks Spanish, French and Italian and won a scholarship to study in Spain, where she met her partner of 18 years.

She underwent sex reassignment surgery, and legally changed her name and gender, in the 1990s – a recognition she wants other transgender people to have.

In 2001, a law was passed making it impossible for transgender Filipinos to change their name and sex.

Roman has vowed to campaign to lift those restrictions, and to push for an anti-discrimination bill that ensures equal treatment in the workplace, schools, commercial establishments and government offices.

Despite the focus on her gender, Roman said her priority was the people of Bataan, and to help more poor students nationwide get scholarships.

“Equality (is) not only in terms of gender but also in terms of socio-economic status. To be rich or poor should not matter. Whether educated or not, people should have the same opportunities so I’m going beyond gender to include more issues,” she said.

With her historic victory, Roman said she hoped more LGBT Filipinos would be inspired to join government.

“I want to inspire everybody. There are many factors for discrimination: on the basis of gender, age, educational attainment, creed. So to all people who experience discrimination, I want to inspire them.”