Former senator and boxing icon Manny Pacquiao returned to government service Sept. 8 after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. swore him in as secretary and lead convenor of the National Anti-Poverty Commission.
Pacquiao, 47, succeeds Lope Santos III and joins the Marcos Cabinet with the rank of Cabinet secretary. The appointment places one of the Philippines’ most recognized public figures at the head of the government body tasked with coordinating anti-poverty programs and representing marginalized sectors in national policymaking.
The National Anti-Poverty Commission, created under Republic Act No. 8425, brings together government agencies, local governments, basic-sector representatives and development partners around poverty-reduction policy. President Marcos chairs the commission, while Pacquiao, as lead convenor, heads the NAPC Secretariat and oversees its day-to-day work.
Pacquiao’s appointment marks his first Cabinet post after serving as Sarangani’s lone representative from 2010 to 2016 and as a senator from 2016 to 2022. He ran for president in 2022 and unsuccessfully sought a return to the Senate in 2025.
The former eight-division world boxing champion has often pointed to his own childhood poverty as a defining part of his public life. In his new role, he will be expected to coordinate programs affecting the country’s 14 basic sectors and help advance the rights set out in the Magna Carta of the Poor.
Those sectors include farmers, fisherfolk, workers, urban poor communities, women, youth, persons with disabilities, senior citizens, indigenous peoples and overseas Filipinos. The commission works with 27 government agencies and four leagues of local government units, according to the NAPC announcement.
Pacquiao takes over as the government seeks to sustain recent reductions in the national poverty rate and expand access to services in communities facing persistent economic hardship. The previous NAPC leadership, under Santos, emphasized sectoral assemblies, local poverty-reduction planning and broader participation by basic sectors in disaster-risk and local governance processes.
Santos congratulated Pacquiao and said his experience in public service and advocacy for Filipinos would serve him well in the new role.
“I am confident that his experience in public service and strong advocacy to uplift the lives of Filipinos will serve him well as he takes on his new role as Cabinet secretary,” Santos said in a statement.
The appointment follows Marcos’ Executive Order No. 123, which transferred oversight of the NAPC and the Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor from the Department of Social Welfare and Development back to the Office of the President.
For Pacquiao, long known as the “People’s Champ” in the boxing ring, the new job brings a different fight: translating the government’s anti-poverty agenda into programs that reach Filipinos living with its consequences every day.
