The Manny Pacquiao poverty reduction role places the former senator at the head of the agency that coordinates anti-poverty policy across the Philippine government. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administered his oath at Malacañang and gave the boxing champion the rank of Cabinet secretary. Pacquiao takes over the National Anti-Poverty Commission from Lope Santos III, who had led its secretariat since 2023.
His new post inside the Manny Pacquiao anti-poverty commission carries a coordinating mandate, not control of a single welfare programme. As NAPC lead convenor, he will run daily operations, align agencies and engage the 14 basic sectors the commission serves. Republic Act 8425, the Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act, created the body in 1998 and named the president as its chair. Marcos recently moved the commission from the Department of Social Welfare to the Office of the President through Executive Order 123, a shift that raised its standing before Pacquiao arrived. The post also sits apart from that of Larry Gadon, the presidential adviser on poverty alleviation.
Numbers behind the appointment
His Marcos cabinet appointment arrives as the country’s poverty indicators record steady improvement. Government data put the Philippines’ poverty rate in 2025 at 9.7 percent of the population, down from 15.5 percent in 2023. That lower share still represents about 11.08 million Filipinos living below the poverty line. Households in the poorest brackets gained the most. First decile incomes rose 23.8 percent, while second decile incomes climbed 22.7 percent over the same window.
The Philippine Statistics Authority also recorded declines in family poverty across all 18 regions between 2023 and 2025. Family poverty incidence now sits at its lowest level since the current series began. The Manny Pacquiao poverty reduction role begins with those indicators already moving in the government’s favour.
Inside the Manny Pacquiao poverty reduction role
A fixed deadline shapes the Manny Pacquiao poverty reduction role. Marcos has set a single-digit national poverty rate of 8 to 9 percent by 2028, and the latest data leaves the government within about one percentage point of that goal. Reaching it depends on programmes that pair job creation with skills investment, social protection and better public services. Pacquiao will monitor those programmes, recommend policy measures and coordinate how resources move across agencies.
Convergence defines the job more than any single benefit scheme. His office pulls separate efforts into one direction and reports where they fall short. The Manny Pacquiao poverty reduction role will be measured in the national figures, not in speeches.
From the streets to the commission
Pacquiao ties the role to hardship he knew long before boxing made him rich. He grew up selling goods on the streets of General Santos City, worked as a ship stowaway, and fought for about two dollars a bout as a boy. “I came from poverty. I experienced sleeping on cardboard on the streets, drinking only water, having nothing to eat,” he said in a statement.
Estimates of Manny Pacquiao’s net worth vary, and Sports Illustrated placed his fortune at 220 million dollars last year. He topped Forbes’ list of the world’s highest-paid athletes in 2012 and 2015. Outside politics, he has funded housing for poor Filipinos and handed cash to long queues of supporters after major fights.
The appointment gives the fighter his first Cabinet position after 12 years in Congress and the Senate. It follows his 2025 induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame as the only eight-division world champion in the sport’s history. Pacquiao has yet to set out a detailed plan for the commission.
