MANILA (Reuters) - Boxing legend Manny Pacquiao quit the sport that lifted him out of poverty to rumble for the Philippines presidency, but his tough talk on drugs and crime failed to hit the mark with voters.
His bid for the top job started in typical bold style: A livestream broadcast of himself riding in a coach emblazoned with “Man of Destiny” through Manila’s morning traffic to file his candidacy.
But his vow to jail corrupt politicians and arrest drug users - despite having admitted to using crystal meth and marijuana when he was a younger - failed to deliver a knockout punch, and he lost Monday’s (May 9) election by a huge margin.
An initial tally showed Pacquiao picked up fewer than 4 million votes, or 6.8 percent of votes counted.
That left him a distant third behind projected winner Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who got more than half the votes, and runner-up Leni Robredo.
The loss came as no surprise - pre-election surveys showed that Pacquiao had almost no chance of winning.
In an interview with AFP last November, Pacquiao, a former congressman, ruled out a sporting comeback if he lost the presidential election.