MANILA, Philippines -- Having all but lost congressional hopeful Manny Pacquiao to the Nacionalista Party, Malacañang made it clear, on Sunday, that it would make no effort to win him back.

But Gabriel Claudio, President Macapagal-Arroyo?s political adviser, gave the international boxing icon a piece of unsolicited advice, saying it would be better if he would stay away from any political party in his bid to win a congressional seat in 2010.
?If NP is interested in getting Manny Pacquiao, we will not try to compete with them or make a counter-offer,? he said in a text message.

(However, an information gathered by the Philippine Daily Inquirer from a source in the Lakas-Kampi-CMD showed that the party?s presidential aspirant Gilberto Teodoro Jr. has been exerting effort to keep Pacquiao as an ally of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD.)

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the administration would not take it against Pacquiao if he would run under the banner of Senator Manuel Villar?s NP in the 2010 elections.

?This is something between Manny Villar and Manny Pacquiao,? he said in his weekly media forum aired at government-run DzRB. ?We will not interfere and we will not take it against (him) if that happens.?

Pacquiao?s departure from the administration?s fold came amid the exodus of other known administration stalwarts to either NP or Sen. Benigno ?Noynoy? Aquino III?s Liberal Party.

Claudio castigated the NP and said it should be ?more circumspect about its recruitment policy and think of what it might deprive the rest of the Filipino people.?

He advised the 30-year-old Pacquiao not to affiliate himself with any political party, citing his status as a ?world sports icon and our own living legend and crown jewel.?

?He will not do justice to himself or the Filipino people to be affiliated with a particular political party because he will alienate himself politically from others who do not belong to that party,? he said.

?Manny belongs to all Filipinos, so it might be wiser for him to be above partisan identities.?

Claudio also suggested that Pacquiao run under the party-list system ?where he can represent a broader national constituency.? (However, in an interview with a Pacquiao backer, former Ilocos Sur Goverbir Luis "Chavit" Singson, he said nominees of partylist groups must not have lost in the preceding congressional elections to qualify. There is no legal bar on Pacquiao to run for a regular congressional district seat in any part of the country for as long as he fulfills the residency requirement.)

In 2007, the boxer ran and lost to incumbent Rep. Darlene Antonino-Custodio in the race for a congressional seat in South Cotabato. In his second congressional run next year, he will gun for the congressional post in Saranggani Province, where he has legally transferred his voter registration and fulfilled the residency requirement by buying properties and holding residence there.