Why Pacquiao left Noynoy to join Binay

FROM Lakas to NP, LP and now UNA. Those are the four political parties thus far for Manny Pacquiao. Does that make Pacquiao a turncoat, a political butterfly?

The last Lakas stalwart was Ate Glue, the former president now serving as a representative from Pampanga.

During her nine-year reign at the Palace, Ate Glue’s regular visitor was Pacquiao.

It became almost customary for Pacquiao to drop by Ate Glue’s old residence by the riverbanks every time he came home from a conquest overseas.

When he first ran for congressman in Gensan in 2007, Pacquiao was under the Lakas banner.

Unfortunately, he lost to Darlene Antonino-custodio.

Pacquiao next aimed his political guns in Sarangani, the land of birth of his wife, Jinkee.

In 2010, he won the lone congressional seat in Sarangani, running under Manny Villar’s Nacionalista Party.

But Villar lost to Noynoy Aquino, the standard bearer of the Liberal Party.

Not long after, Pacquiao switched camps again, moving over to Noynoy’s LP.

Observers said, Pacquiao “is so young, but so wise already to the ways of the political arena.”

You want political survival, you seek to secure favors from the powerful, join the ruling party: LP.

But, alas, the Noynoy-pacman romance would prove to be short-lived.

Just very recently, Vice President Jojo Binay said Pacquiao has joined the UNA (United Nationalist Alliance).

UNA is an alliance forged between the Pdp-laban (Binay’s party when he defeated Mar Roxas for vice president in 2010) and Erap’s PMP (Partido ng Masang Pilipino).

“Pacman is our gubernatorial bet in Sarangani in the 2013 election,” said Binay, the UNA chieftain who is highlytouted as running for president in 2016.

Pacquiao’s fans have asked me: What might have prompted Pacman to bolt Noynoy’s LP?

I have a guess: Pacman felt he didn’t get any help from Noynoy regarding the boxing icon’s recent row with the taxman.

You might probably say, “What a flimsy reason.”

Excuse me, but to a guy like Pacquiao, friendship is really “walang iwanan,” or BFF if you will, as in “Best Friends Forever.”

The masa would almost always think that way.