The Philippine Postal Corp. is set to issue a stamp featuring Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao this week in the run-up to his fight with American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 2.

The Philippine Postal Corp. (PhlPost) will issue a stamp featuring Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao this week in the run-up to his fight with American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 2.

PhlPost will sell 300,000 pieces of the Pacquiao stamp, or three times the usual number of printed stamps, Postmaster General Ma. Josefina de la Cruz said yesterday.

PhlPost would also sell 20,000 copies of the souvenir sheet and 5,000 copies of the first day cover.

The Pacquiao stamp would be sold for P10 each, while the souvenir sheet for P40 each and official first day cover for P100 each.

The stamps were designed without any embellishments and PhlPost only hired a local printer to manufacture the stamps.

“The value of the stamp is not in the embellishment, it is in Pacquiao himself,” De la Cruz said.

De la Cruz, however, admitted that producing the Pacquiao stamp is a risk on the part of PhlPost because its price would diminish if Pacquiao loses to Mayweather.

“If he loses… that stamp is no longer valuable. Whatever happens to that fight is a risk for us,” she said.

PhlPost hopes that all the Pacquiao stamps would be sold before the May 2 fight, she added.

The stamps will also be featured in PhlPost’s website so that Pacquiao’s fans in other parts of the world will get the chance to purchase online.

De la Cruz explained that PhlPost is trying to avoid the repeat of what happened in 2008 when almost all the copies of the first Pacquiao stamps were bought by just one person. If this happens again, the lone buyer can dictate the selling price of the stamps.