WHILE eight-time world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao spent the whole time last Friday in Sarangani, executives from a pharmaceutical company and a big shopping mall in Pasay City unveiled a 10-foot bronze statue of the boxing icon.
The statue depicted the hardships Pacquiao went through when he began his professional career 15 years ago.
The statue, which was criticized for its oversized head and wrinkles on the forehead by a blogger, was created by award-winning sculptor Fred Baldemor of Paete, Laguna, and it stood high and proud in the middle of eight-foot statues of a nurse, a farmer, a teacher and a construction worker.
Baldemor was commissioned by pain reliever company Alaxan FR, a Pacquiao supporter, and the SM Mall of Asia to do the statues, under the theme, “Aray Ko, Galing Ko.”
Congratulations to our kababayan I am very proud being a Paetenians.