Manny Pacquiao calls gay couples ‘worse than animals’

Harry Readhead

Pacquiao is running for a senate seat (Picture: REUTERS)

Ten-time world boxing champion and Filipino congressman Manny Pacquiao is under fire after calling gay couples ‘worse than animals’.
Pacquiao, who was long rated as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world and enjoys enormous popularity for his humble demeanour and all-action fighting style, spoke to local broadcaster TV5 in the run up to the Philippines’ May elections, in which he is running for a senate seat.
Pacquiao, a devout Catholic who is running as a conservative Bible-bearing politician, was slammed as an ‘ignorant, bigoted hypocrite’ and a ‘blind prophet’ after he told TV5 that gay couples are ‘worse than animals.’
‘It’s common sense,’ he said.

Pacquiao is the only eight-division boxing champion in history (Picture: Getty Images)

‘Do you see animals mating with the same sex? Animals are better because they can distinguish male from female.
(We would just quickly add here that homosexual behaviour has been seen in more than 1,500 species of animal.)
‘If men mate with men and women mate with women they are worse than animals.’
Gay Filipino comedian Vice Ganda wrote on Twitter that ‘the Senate needs experts on politics and law, not blind prophets’, and began the hashtag #PrayForMannyPacquiao. Lesbian singer Aiza Seguerra said that though Pacquiao, the Philippines’ most famous export, has ‘done our country proud… you showed why we shouldn’t vote for you.’
Gay marriage is outlawed in the Philippines due to opposition from the Catholic Church and 80 per cent of the country’s 100million people are Catholic. Recent surveys suggest Pacquiao will win in his senate bid.