CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Boxing champion Senator Emmanuel Pacquiao’s eldest son was recently elected to top positions in the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party (WPP), documents showed.
Based on said documents, Emmanuel Pacquiao Jr., more popularly known as “Jimuel,” was elected as officer of WPP’s national executive council. He also holds the chairmanship of the party’s youth affairs committee.
It was not indicated when and where the WPP’s election was held, but in a sworn information update statement (SIUS) submitted by the party to the Commission on Elections (Comelec), the young Pacquiao’s name was included in the party’s list of new national executive council officials.
The SIUS, dated August 12, 2021, was filed by lawyer Jose Villegas Jr., WPP chairman and president, and lawyer Ariel Joseph Arias, secretary general, and was endorsed to lawyer Genesis Gatdula, of the Comelec’s office of the Clerk of Commission.
Pacquiao’s newly acquired position in the WPP happened days before his father’s scheduled fight against welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas of Cuba at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, United States on August 21.
In a statement, Dr. Oscar Morado, WPP senior vice-president for operations, said that the younger Pacquiao is “a welcome addition into the party’s buildup for future political battles.”
WPP, also known as the Labor Party of the Philippines, said in the same statement that it is the “5th biggest political party accredited by Comelec.”
Names in the national council, Morado said, “will man key committee chairs” and that “moving forward, as the party pillars into the 2022 election cycle, further key personalities will be appropriately announced.”
He said the new set of elected officers is bounded and fortified with doable, genuine, audacious and sustainable programs for the long-deprived labor sector.
“A local government model with dotted enviable success imprints across the world. We envisaged to bring back the templates of fundamental core values, dignity, unity, peace, transparency and transcendence in governance. The fight continues. The moment is now,” Morado added.
Elected to sit in the national executive council were Pacquiao,Villegas Jr., Arias, Morado, lawyer Mark Christopher Tolentino, Shariff Ibrahim Albani, Jerry Peñalosa, Pierre Angeli Hernandez, Jeffrey Catimbang, Algerico Isla, Joaquin Borja, Atty. Faye Singson, Gregorio Arcangel Jr., Engr. Herminio Camarin and Robert Lim.
Listed as national officers were Villegas Jr., Arias, Morado, Tolentino, vice president for the National Capital Region and Organizations; Camarines Sur vice-governor Imelda Papin, vice-president for South Luzon; Shariff Ibrahim Albani, vice-president for Visayas; lawyer Allan Montaño, vice-president for Mindanao; lawyer Sonny Matula, vice-president for Administration; and Russell Sobrepeña, Treasurer. As of this writing, both Pacquiaos have not yet issued a statement regarding this development.
