Sarangani Rep. and senatorial candidate Manny Pacquiao compared the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to animals, promptly getting himself flak on social media at the start of the 2016 elections campaign.
In an interview with the TV-5 group for its “Bilang Pilipino” elections coverage, Pacquiao said that “common sense” would tell you that there are no animals who engage in sex with the same gender.
By analogy, then, if persons engage in same-sex relations, then they are worse than animals, Pacquiao added.
“It’s only common sense. Would you see any species of animals who engage in male-to-male, female-to-female [sexual] relations? Animals, then, are better than humans [in that sense]. They know how to distinguish males from females,” Pacquiao said in Filipino.
“If people then engage in male-to-male, female-to-female relations, then they are worse than animals,” he added.
Despite Pacquiao’s claims of “common sense,” however, studies have shown that even animals engage in homosexual behavior.
The video of the interview has since gone viral on social media, garnering over 1.1 million views. It also got over 22,000 shares and 12,400 likes as of writing.
Netizens on Twitter went to the point of urging voters not to elect Pacquiao.
“Hope the LGBT community spearheads a campaign to keep Pacquiao off the Senate. We don’t need another bigot there,” Cecila (@ceso) said.
“Imagine how many gay boxers and gay athletes’ hearts Manny Pacquiao just broke,” added netizen Jaythan Edrick (?@morejaythanyou).
“Not sure if the best way to refute Manny Pacquiao’s “masahol pa sa hayop” statement is to tell him there are homosexual animals,” Jacques Jimeno tweeted (?@jacjimeno).
Even celebrities like DJ Mo Twister, Liza Diño, singer Aiza Seguerra and Vice Ganda gave their thoughts on social media.
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Mo Twister, real name Mohan Gumatay, said Pacquiao’s remarks were among the “more offensive” he has ever heard.
Seguerra, meanwhile, called Pacquiao an “ignorant, bigoted hypocrite.” Posting a text on Instagram, Seguerra said that the people should not vote for the senatorial aspirant even if he had brought pride to the country before.
Diño, Seguerra’s wife, shared the video on Facebook and made this comment: “Naalog na yata dahil sa mga suntok ang ulo ni Manny Pacquiao! Tsk tsk. You just lost half of humanity dahil sa kahayupan ng sagot mo… Nakakalungkot…”
Vice Ganda, who is Jose Marie Viceral in real life, turned the tables against the Filipino boxing icon, saying that sleeping with other women other than his wife is also a sin.
“To engage in sexual relations with the same gender is worse than animals? Then what do you call sleeping with other women while you’re still married? Please answer, Manny!,” Viceral said in Filipino.
He even slammed Pacquiao for being a “false prophet” and dissed him for his absenteeism in the House of Representatives.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, cited a verse from the Bible to defend his statement against same-sex unions—a remark which drew flak on social media and did not sit well with some celebrities.
In a post on his Instagram account, Pacquiao clarified that he was not condemning anyone but he was only abiding with what the Bible supposedly said.
“I [would] rather obey the Lord’s command than obeying the desires of the flesh. [I’m] not condemning anyone, but I’m just telling the truth of what the Bible says,” the boxer-lawmaker said.
He then cited 1 Corinthians 6:9 which read: “[9] Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men.”
Pacquiao ended his message with “God Bless everyone [I] love you all.”
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