EVEN before the pandemic, you may have already spotted a few people sporting the infamous Manny Pacquiao face mask — a face covering with Manny’s trademark grin (and beard) printed on the front.
As the lockdowns descended over the Philippines last March, a couple of netizens were joking that they needed to stock up on face masks ‘na baba ni Pacquiao ang design.’
Now, many months later, the boxer-politician himself acknowledged the existence of these masks, posting an image of two children wearing them on his social media accounts.
“Let’s continue to spread happiness,” he said in his caption.
Last week, the Manny Pacquiao Public Information System, a Facebook page that claims to be affiliated with the eight-time world champion, rode on the popularity of these bootleg, viral masks and launched a contest called “MASk Maligaya with Manny.”
Anyone who uploads a selfie or groupfie of themselves wearing one of those masks and tags it #happymanny, #showmethemanny, #mannypacquiao, and #mpday could get a chance to win up to P400,000.
Don't worry if your mask isn't official Manny merch. “Any mask will do, as long as may happy smile ni Manny Pacquiao,” said the contest mechanics.
According to videos posted on that Facebook page, Pacquiao spent the day a goodwill tour of relief goods distribution, dropping by Dasmarinas and Bacoor to hand out ayuda.
Very early in the enhanced community quarantine, Pacquiao (in partnership with the foundation of billionaire tycoon Jack Ma) donated around half a million face masks — as well as 50,000 COVID-19 testing kits — to frontliners and communities. As far as we know, those face masks weren't the Pacquiao kind.
Spin fans unite at the Spin Viber Community! Join the growing community now and complete the experience by subscribing to the Spin Chatbot.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph