MANILA, Philippines (Eagle News) — Eight-time world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao has sparked a firestorm of criticism in the Philippines after describing gay couples as “worse than animals”.
Nearing the end of a glorious decades-long boxing career, the 37-year-old is reinventing himself as a conservative bible-bearing politician ahead of the country’s May elections, when he is running for a senate seat.
Gay marriage is outlawed in the Philippines due to strong opposition from the Catholic Church and 80 percent of the country’s 100 million people subscribe to the faith.
Pacquiao gave the television interview on TV5 as part of his campaign for one of 12 seats in the nationally-elected senate.