BACK from his last fight in Las Vegas, Senator Manny Pacquiao on Wednesday signaled he is back in full harness as lawmaker, even while still in mandatory quarantine.
Pacquiao volunteered to be a co-sponsor of a landmark legislation, long in process in the legislative mill, providing for better protection for Filipino seafarers in all stages of their work—before, during and after deployment.
Pacquiao made the manifestation after the chairman of the Senate Labor Committee, Senator Joel Villanueva, endorsed to plenary the consolidated bills to establish a Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers.
Pacquiao noted the key role that overseas Filipino workers, especially the seafarers, have played in Philippine economy and nation building, and said it was the least that lawmakers can do to improve their lot.
Villanueva enthusiastically welcomed the offer of Pacquiao, whose next political plans are now subject of great speculation after his crushing loss to Yordenis Ugás on August 21, given his continuing rift with the other faction of the PDP-Laban, led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, backed by President Duterte.
Pacquiao has said he will announce later this month whether he will seek anew a Senate seat, or run for higher office, possibly including the presidency.
The original author of the Magna Carta for seafarers, Senator Risa Hontiveros, had noted how seafarers are vulnerable to illegal termination, decrease and non-payment of salaries, unsafe working conditions and other forms of abuses, especially with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The “Institutionalization of a Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers” consolidates separate bills, authored by Hontiveros and Senators Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay, Bong Revilla and Villanueva.