MANILA, Philippines — Senator Manny Pacquiao slammed “pretentious genius” leaders who try to speak good English just to impress people.
“Marami sa atin na galing-galingan…Ang tawag ko dyan is pretentious genius leader, samantalang kawawa ang mga mahihirap na tao,” Pacquiao said in recent interview shared to reporters by his office over the weekend.
(Many are pretending to be smart. I call them pretentious genius leader, while poor people are suffering.)
“Useless ang pagiging politician ko kung wala akong magagawa. Maging katulad ako doon sa mga trapong politician, useless. Gusto ko habang nandito pa ako sa pulitika, gusto kong iayos para sa kapakanan ng mga mahihirap na tao kasi doon ako galing,” he added.
(I’d be useless if I do nothing. I’ll just end up like other trapo [traditional politicians], useless. I want to fix the problems while I’m still here in politics for the sake of poor Filipinos because that’s where I came from.)
The senator made the remarks as he talked about the many unsolved problems of the country such as the lack of funding source to support the huge annual spending of the government.
He cited as example the P4.5 trillion budget proposal for 2021 when he estimated that the government’s income would be only less than P3 trillion.
“Common sense ang problema ng bansa natin (The problem of our country is common sense),” said Pacquiao, who is now president of the ruling PDP-Laban being chaired by President Rodrigo Duterte.
“Hindi ko alam kung ano ba ang nasa isip natin. Tayo ba ay may utak o wala? Sorry emotional lang ako ha.”
(I don’t know what we’re thinking. Are we using our brains or not? Sorry, I’m just emotional.)
Instead of raising more taxes, Pacquiao believes that the tax imposition for corporate and individuals should be lowered to attract more investors and create more jobs for Filipinos.
“E sabi nila ano alam ni Manny Pacquiao (They say, what does Manny Pacquiao know)…? Ang tao kasi, ‘O kailangan (People say that it’s necessary that) I have to speak good English, I have to speak perfect English to prove that I’m a good leader. No, the most important for a leader is this: If you already know the problem, you know how to solve the problem. That’s what we need,” he said.
“And this pretentious genius politician, trying to speak good English, perfect English to impress people and that’s what happens to this country,” the senator went on.