Philippines celebrate historic Pacquiao victory

The Philippines on Sunday united to celebrate boxing hero Manny Pacquiao as he won an historic eighth world title, with soldiers, slum dwellers and farmers hailing him as the greatest ever.

Pacquiao’s pummelling of Antonio Margarito in Texas to capture the WBC super welterweight title caused a familiar upsurge in pride for the impoverished Southeast Asian nation’s 94 million people.

“Pacquiao is the greatest boxer ever,” said Aliudin Sumael, 43, a Muslim farmer who rushed to a cultural centre in the strife-torn southern province of Maguindanao to watch the bout.

“I hope he can share his millions with us poor Muslims.”

Pacquiao’s rise from poverty to the top of world boxing has been one of the few enduring success stories in the Philippines over recent years, as society has struggled with grinding poverty, corruption and natural disasters. The 31-year-old’s sporting success helped him launch a successful political career and he was elected a congressman of the desperately poor southern province of Sarangani in national elections in May.

As has become tradition in the Philippines, soldiers fighting a long-running Muslim insurgency in the south put down their weapons on Sunday to watch their idol and expressed fleeting hopes of reconciliation.

“During the fight itself, the soldiers and the whole Filipino nation regardless of ideology, will be one, cheering for our Filipino hero,” military spokesman Brigadier General Jose Mabanta told AFP before the bout.