BEFORE eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao flew to Los Angeles on Saturday, he went online for a press conference to make amends with President Duterte and shoot down two government agencies he accused of being corrupt.
Pacquiao fulfilled his task as a sitting senator for a little over an hour before the media and went directly to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, sat on the plane and was expecting to be at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym a day later to start training for his August 21 (August 22 in Manila) fight with unified world champion Errol Spence Jr. in Las Vegas.
But Pacquiao found himself and 185 other passengers on board the Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight back in Manila. With him was bosom buddy and chief trainer Buboy Fernandez.
The plane was already three hours in the air when it diverted to Haneda Airport in Japan to unload a sick passenger.
PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said the Flight PR102 took off at NAIA around 9 p.m. Saturday when one of the cabin crew notified the pilots that one of the passengers is sick and badly needing medical attention.
The pilot radioed Japan air traffic controllers alerting them of a medical emergency landing, and was given priority among others which lined up for at Haneda. The PAL plane safely landed at 3:36 a.m. Japan local time.
Haneda airport personnel immediately provided medical relief to the ailing passenger.
The PAL pilots, meanwhile, trying to catch the landing deadline, contacted the Los Angeles airport to announce their late arrival due to the emergency.
Airport sources said that Los Angeles airport officials told the PAL pilots that immigration and customs services will be closed at midnight and will resume in the morning.
PAL tried to explain the emergency situation, saying they cannot make the 12 midnight closure of immigration and customs services, to no avail.
The PAL flight returned to the NAIA from Haneda with the sick passenger, including Pacquiao and his team. The flight departed anew at 2 p.m. for its original destination.
“I’m fine. Just what I said before, I don’t mix politics with boxing, but I don’t set aside my job as a legislator,” Pacquiao said on Sunday. “I also trained well in General Santos City.”