📍General Santos City, South Cotabato, Philippines
1990 – 1995“Manny Pacquiao was born in December 1978 in Kibawe, in the mountains of Bukidnon province on the island of Mindanao, in the southern Philippines, into a very poor family, in a thatched house with a dirt floor. When fighting between government troops and rebels came close to their home, the family moved south to General Santos City, a busy fishing port known as the tuna capital of the Philippines, and lived in a shack owned by an uncle. His parents separated when he was young, and his mother, Dionisia, struggled to feed her six children. From an early age Manny worked to help his family, selling bread, peanuts, doughnuts and water on the hot streets of General Santos, and sometimes going hungry. He has said he dropped out of school because the family couldn't afford it. His uncle introduced him to boxing, and he watched fights on television and trained in local gyms, fighting in amateur bouts in the town square for small purses. He was small, fast and fearless, and boxing offered a way out. At fourteen, without telling his family, he stowed away on a boat to Manila, where he worked in construction and as a labourer while training, and slept in a boxing gym. He turned professional at sixteen in 1995, weighing barely a hundred pounds. He went on to win world titles in eight weight divisions, a record, and became a national hero and a senator. He still lives in General Santos, and his rags-to-riches story was told in the film Kid Kulafu.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
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