The Gist

PBB HOUSEMATE HIGHLIGHTS WATER SHORTAGE IN SARANGANI AND PEOPLE ARE CALLING OUT THE WEALTHY PACQUIAOS

A housemate from reality TV show ‘Pinoy Big Brother’ (PBB) revealed that there is a water shortage in Sarangani. Since then, people have been calling out Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao and his wife Jinkee Pacquiao who both served the province as politicians.

JOVE MOYA / 23 December 2020

When 16-year-old Jie-Ann Armero was asked about her cleaning habits inside the reality TV show ‘Pinoy Big Brother’ (PBB), the housemate revealed that her family in Sarangani did not have enough water for them to even consider bathing regularly. 

According to Armero, a container of clean water in the province costs P12–a price her family could barely afford. 

“‘Yung tubig po namin doon isang container po, 12 pesos po. Tapos ‘yung container po namin, tatlo lang kaya minsan, hindi na po talaga ako nakakaligo, kasi maliit lang po iyong mga container namin. Tinitipid pa po namin ‘yong tubig,” Armero said.

(A container of water costs P12, and we are only able to buy three. That is why sometimes, I cannot bathe because our containers are just small. We are saving the water.)

Following the young housemate’s revelation, people on social media started to question Senator  Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao and his wife Jinkee who both served Sarangani as politicians. 

It can be recalled that Senator Manny  was elected as the Representative of Srangani during the 15th Congress of the Philippines.

Jinkee, on the other hand, served as a vice governor of the province from 2013 to 2016.

In one tweet, a netizen slammed Manny for launching his own payment platform ‘PacPay’ whilst his constituents are deprived of basic human necessities. 

“What makes me angry is the fact that Manny Pacquiao will launch PacPay while his constituents like Jie-Ann are deprived of a basic human right,” the said netizen wrote. 

“Siguro tanungin din natin si Senator Manny Pacquiao kung bakit ganoon pa rin ang sitwasyon ng mga taga-Sarangani. Bakit ‘di pa rin abot ang malinis na tubig?” another netizen asked.

(Maybe we should ask Senator Manny Pacquiao why the situation [such as water shortage] still exists in Sarangani. Why isn’t there clean water?)

“Manny Pacquiao was a former Congressman of Sarangani, and Jinkee Pacquiao was a former Vice Governor of Sarangani. Sa dami ng pera nila tapos planning for presidency pa si Manny, di nila naayos yung water shortage diyan?” a netizen said.

(They have a lot of money, Manny is even planning to run for presidency, yet they were not able to provide an immediate solution to Sarangani’s water problem)

Senator Manny has already denied claims that he will be running for the 2022 presidential elections, but his position in the Philippine Democratic Party–People’s Power more commonly known as PDP–Laban, says otherwise.

Last December 3, 2020, Manny was sworn as the new President of the Party, replacing Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, who will now serve as the party’s executive vice chairman.

PDP-Laban is also the political party of President Rodrigo Duterte.