Freshly-crowned World Boxing Council(WBC) lightweight champion Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao is likely to bear the national flag for the Philippine delegation to the Beijing Summer Olympics next month, local media reported Friday.
If accredited by organizers of the Beijing Olympics, Pacquiao will be the country's first non-participating athlete, also rare in the world, to bear the national flag at the opening of Olympic Games.
Pacquiao, a Filipino professional boxer known as Manny Pacquiaoor Pac-Man, was named a special envoy and the flag-bearer for the Philippines by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday, changing an earlier pick named and approved by the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC).
Pacquiao gained the honor during his visit to the Presidential Palace Friday morning after arriving from the United States where he won his WBC lightweight championship.
On June 28, Pacquiao defeated defending champion David Diaz in Las Vegas and became the WBC lightweight champion. With the victory, Pacquiao became the only Asian boxer to win four major titles in four weight classes and also became the first Filipino fighter to ever win a world title at lightweight.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said that as the special envoy, Pacquiao would be carrying the national flag at the Beijing Olympic's opening ceremony.
"For the honor he had given the Filipino people, the President gave back the honor to him," said Ermita.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Olympic Committee, the group in charge of designating the flag-bearer for the country, said they had no problem of changing the flag-bear but it is still no clear whether Pacquiao will be approved by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games (BOGOC).
POC previously appointed swimmer Miguel Molina, who was named Best Male Athlete in the 2007 Southeast Asian Games, as the Philippine flag-bearer.
"POC Executive Board must approve Pacquiao as flag-bearer but since the accreditation for athletes closed since April 15, I don't know if this still can be done," Julian Camacho, Treasurer of the Philippine Olympic Committee, told Xinhua.
Flag-bearer, as a member of the delegation, should be accredited before the Games. Only accredited participating athletes and officials are allowed in the Olympic village and to represent the country in the opening ceremony.
Pacquiao, as a professional player, will not see action in the Olympics, which accommodates only amateur boxers.
According to local media, the Philippines has never chosen a non-participating athlete to be its flag-bearer in any one of the Olympic games it participated since 1924.
Celso Dayrit, former POC president, said although he is not aware of any country that has done that he saw no problem about it. "All the qualities that are embodied in an exceptional athlete are in Pacquiao and in the end, that's what we're after," he told national news network GMA News.
The Philippines will send a squad of 15 athletes to Beijing to compete in seven sports -- archery, swimming, diving, boxing, taekwondo, shooting and weightlifting. Philippine sports officials have expected the team for the Beijing Games, though among the weakest Filipino delegations to previous Olympics, would hopefully bring back a medal. Boxer Harry Tanamor and two Taekwondo jins are seen as the country's best chances.
Source: Xinhua
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