Among others, Pacquiao wants to craft a law requiring Filipino athletes to play for national teams or to represent the country if requested in the Olympic games or major international and regional competitions.
Pacquiao cited the cases of Jun Mar Fajardo, L.A. Tenorio and Paul Lee, among others who did not play in the recent Gilas FIBA Asia Championship.
“Filipino athletes who refuse to play for the national team do not deserve to be called Filipinos,” said Pacquiao, who earlier announced his candidacy in the upcoming senatorial elections.
“Kung hindi ka magre-respond sa tawag ng bandila, kung hindi ka susunod, hindi mo dapat sinasabi na Pilipino ka,” he said. (If you will not respond to the call of the flag, if you will not follow, you should not call yourself a Filipino), he said.
Aside from the sports-related bills, Pacquiao is also pushing for the revision of tax rates seen as cumbersome to middle-class salary earners and majority of the Filipino masses.
Pacquiao also intends to work on the revision or amendment of the Salary Standardization Law so that civil servants earn better pay.
In the House of Representatives, Pacquiao has authored 26 bills including, among others, the establishment of breast care centers nationwide, establishment of community fitness centers in all barangays, granting of 180 days leave benefits to female workers in government and the private sector and free Internet access to all students in colleges in universities in the country.
These bills are pending and under deliberations in various committee levels in the lower house. Obviously Pacquiao will continue to work on the passage of these pieces of legislation when he gets elected to the senate.
Pacquiao has attended only four sessions in the last congress as he fight training often conflicted with congress sessions. But congressional leaders have excused him from attending sessions because he also brings pride and honor to the country whenever he fights abroad.
