MANNY V. Pangilinan kept his word and gave reigning International Boxing Federation (IBF) super-flyweight champion Jerwin Ancajas a cool P1 million check on Tuesday.
The financial support was promised by Pangilinan to the 26-year-old boxer when they personally met two weeks ago during the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Annual Awards Night at the Manila Hotel. Ancajas was co-recipient of the Athlete of the Year honor, while Pangilinan was bestowed the President’s Award.
Ancajas said he and his team plan to use the money in the refurbishing of the boxing champ’s training camp in Magallanes, Cavite.
“Yung pera po ay para sa Survival Camp. Papa-ayos po namin yun,” said Ancajas, who was accompanied by trainer and manager Joven Jimenez and Olympian and stablemate Mark Barriga when they met Pangilinan at his PLDT office.
Also present during the turnover rites were Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) president Ricky Vargas, who is also executive of PLDT, and TV5 network president and CEO Chot Reyes.
Ancajas is now deep in training for the defense of his IBF crown against fellow Filipino and mandatory challenger Jonas Sultan on April 14 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas in the undercard of the Jeff Horn-Terrence Crawford World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title match.