Call him senator Pacquiao now

Senator Manny Pacquiao. Photo from Senate’s Facebook account

HOLLYWOOD—The celebration can wait. 

Honoring his covenant with the Filipino people, Manny Pacquiao, just hours after his masterful triumph over Jessie Vargas,  took a private plane ride out of Las Vegas Sunday afternoon to catch the last flight bound for Manila and be able to attend the Senate session on Tuesday.

“My next fight is out of my mind,” said Pacquiao, who added another chapter to his boxing legacy by clinching the WBO welterweight crown, the first senator—in the Philippines or elsewhere—to do so.

Pacquiao’s concentration has shifted to politics.

“What is in my mind is to go back and work,” said Pacquiao, who shelved his traditional return to Los Angeles to be able to participate in the Senate budget deliberations.