Pacquiao visits Aquino

Manny Pacquiao INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Hounded by the taxman here and abroad, Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao on Wednesday paid a belated courtesy call on President Aquino, who once berated the boxing icon for airing his case in public.

The meeting took place nearly a month after Pacquiao’s successful ring comeback, a 12-round blowout of American Brandon Rios in Macau. Pacquiao had suffered a knockout against Mexican rival Juan Manuel Marquez 11 months earlier.

But with both politicians preoccupied with relief operations for victims of Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” the President could accommodate Pacquiao only on Wednesday in a closed-door meeting that lasted more than an hour at the Palace’s Music Room.

“I think he was busy and I think, as you can see, I’m busier. So there was no other point other than scheduling conflict,” Aquino told reporters before meeting Pacquiao.

The congressman said he too was preoccupied with his own relief distribution in Tacloban City and in preparing for his 35th birthday.

“Both of us became busy,” he told reporters.

The courtesy call, a Pacquiao ritual after every successful ring conquest in the past, came amid the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) effort to collect P2.2 billion from the boxer in alleged back taxes. Pacquiao is also being asked to pay some $18 million in alleged tax liabilities by the US Internal Revenue Service.

The President earlier assailed Pacquiao for suggesting that the government was harassing him through the BIR case.

“Why would he be harassed? Where’s the logic in that?” Aquino had said.

“If he did right, then I’m sure he will be able to prove that he did right, and therefore there is no issue. So the way to settle it is to answer all of these queries of the BIR and not to engage in a media war.”

Before sitting down with Pacquiao on Wednesday, Aquino said he was “ready to listen… to what he wants to talk about.”

Pacquiao emerged from the meeting shortly before 5 p.m., telling reporters that he and the President talked about boxing legend Muhammad Ali, “sumo wrestling” and “shooting competition.”