Pacquiao talks about visa debit card

6:32 pm | Saturday, November 12th, 2011

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LOS ANGELES, California—Eight-division boxing world champion Manny Pacquiao discusses his latest business venture: 24/7 Visa® Prepaid Debit + Remit Card.

Even as Pacquiao prepares to face Juan Manuel Marquez for the third time in Saturday’s showdown at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, he has the well being of his fellow Filipinos in mind.

“24/7 Card is the all-new Visa debit card that allows people to send money to family and friends around for the world for a low cost,” Pacquiao explains. “This is the first debit plus remit card designed especially for Filipinos who work hard to support their families back at home. Now Filipinos and other immigrants have an affordable, secure and convenient way to send money to their loved ones overseas.”

The world pound for pound king, and Filipino “national” hero, Pacquiao has played a key role in developing 24/7 Card, which will make it easier and less costly for Filipino immigrants to send much needed financial support to their families in the Philippines. “Helping the Filipino community and families is a cause very close to my heart,” explains Pacquiao. “I am pleased to bring to our community a product that will help improve the lives of my countrymen around the world. 24/7 Card is my card.”

To hear Manny Pacquiao speak more about his latest business venture and his commitment to helping Filipinos all around the world, view his interview at http://vimeo.com/album/1745531. Additional footage and photos are also available.

For more information about 24/7 Card, visit www.247card.com

Pacquiao to build villa in high-end enclave in Albay

By Mar S. Arguelles
Inquirer Southern Luzon

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CAGRARAY ISLAND, Philippines—Manny Pacquaio is set to buy a 1,000-square-meter lot worth P12 million and build a vacation villa at the luxurious Misibis Bay Resort here.

Pacquiao, awed by the luxury and privacy of the resort that is a 25-minute ride by fastcraft from Legazpi City, said he intends to build a villa in the exclusive enclave where he and his family can take a break in between his gruelling boxing commitments and work as a member of the House of Representative representing his province of Sarangani.

“Nagustuhan ko itong lugar, tahimik at maganda (I like this place. It’s beautiful and very private). Upon my arrival here on Thursday I was able to sleep for a straight 16 hours,” he said on Saturday. “I’d like to build a small vacation villa here so that I can frequently visit Albay.”

Pacquiao said he and his and wife Jinky have toured the five-hectare resort, located within the 5,000-hectare Cagraray Island, and were impressed by the resort’s facilities.

Elizaldy Co, president and chief executive officer of Sunwest Group that operates Misibis Bay Resort, Embarcadero Mall and a string of  hotels here and in Manila, offered Pacquiao the 1,000-sq. m.  lot at the resorts’  retirement and vacation village.

Pacquiao, Jinky and some  members of the Team Pacquiao led by Boboy Fernandez, his boxing trainer who is a resident of Polangui, Albay, flew in from Manila on Thursday on a private plane.

His presence in Legazpi was on the invitation of his colleagues in Congress—AKB party list Representative Alfredo Garbin and Albay 2nd district Representative Al Francis Bichara—and Co.

On arrival in Legazpi, Pacquiao paid a courtesy call on Mayor Geraldine Rosal and obliged her request to hold a motorcade and tour the city’s main thoroughfares, which brought out thousands of residents who gave the boxing idol a rousing welcome.

Pacquiao said the province had a lot to offer, with the beautiful scenery providing a lush backdrop to tourist establishments.

“Despite being a typhoon prone area, the area remains impressively scenic, and attractive,” said Pacquiao, adding that he would promote Albay in future trips abroad.

Pacquiao on Thursday also rode an all-terrain vehicle and visited  Mount Mayon’s lava dome at Barangay Mabinit in Legazpi City and was stunned by the sight of a four-story-tall lava front spewed by the volcano during its 2004 eruption.

At the Misibis Resort, he and his team engaged in jet skiing and scuba diving in the waters of Albay Gulf facing the Pacific Ocean. They also  rode the zipline at the resort’s EcoPark.

Pacquiao and his entourage ended their three-day visit here Saturday and boarded his chartered plane at noon for General Santos City, his hometown.

Pacman: 'Pag-asa, Tiyaga at Determinasyon'

Wala Lang

By DR. JAIME C. LAYA

MANILA, Philippines -- Lying hungry on cardboard spread on bare ground and glimpsing stars through gaps in the mountain hut’s cogon roof, the little boy’s dream was simply a solid roof and a laden table.  If anyone deserves a mansion in North Forbes, it is he.

Manny Pacquiao’s autobiography (first published in English as told to Timothy James, Pacman: My Story of Hope, Resilience and Never-Say-Never Determination) is now available in Tagalog.  Everyone should read it.

Pacquiao was born in December 1978 in a remote sitio of Kibawe, Bukidnon in Mindanao’s mountainous heart.  At age two, the family moved to the equally secluded Barangay Tango in Glan, Sarangani literally at road’s end.  There Manny spent his boyhood, five kilometers to the nearest settlement that he and his brother Bobby walked to school.  Sometimes with only a banana each for the day, they were mocked by schoolmates for their poverty.

Hauling supplies and water up the stony and dusty (or muddy) road was part of daily life.  At age six or seven, Manny would hike six kilometers to the seashore to help fishermen haul in their nets.  He would set aside two of the few fish tossed his way and sell the rest.

At age 10 (1988), the family moved to Gen. Santos City.  His was not an easy childhood—Manny notes how wounded he was with the loss of his puppy at his father’s hand and how his mother kept the family going after she and four young children were left on their own.  Aling Dionisia did laundry, cleaned others’ houses and roasted peanuts that her children sold on the streets.  Dropping out of school at 12, Manny became “a one-man traveling grocery store” hawking “bread, peanuts, doughnuts, water—you name it, we had it.”

Deciding that he had a chance in boxing, Manny began training.  His life-changing moment was seeing the 1990 Tyson vs. Douglas match and realizing that underdogs could be champions. “To this day, I still watch replays of that fight because it still amazes me.”

At age 15 (1993) and without his mother knowing, Manny stowed away to Manila.  His first, excruciating, job was scraping rust off scrap metal.  He trained at a Sampaloc gym and supported himself (and sending home P300/month), as gardener, construction worker, restaurant helper, tailor, flower vendor.  When jobless, he slept in the open, accepting restaurant leftovers only if he could work for it—wash dishes, help clean.  He refused to beg, no matter what.

Pacman turned professional in 1995 (on a TV show for P50 per fight), first fought abroad in 1998 (Tokyo and Bangkok) and reached Los Angeles in 2001.  He was running out of money but managed by singing karaoke and playing billiards for money.  That was also when he met Freddie Roach.  He won that first U.S. bout and plugged on to become “the most accomplished boxer, pound for pound, inside and outside the ring.”

It says something that he did all these with hardly anyone, least of all government, noticing.

Comments are cordially invited, addressed to walalang@mb.com.ph.