My informant recently disclosed that the camp of Manny Pacquiao conducted or commissioned a survey to assess Manny’s chances in the congressional race in Sarangani.

The unimpeachable source, who requested anonymity because of his close personal ties with the Filipino boxing champion, said Manny is trailing way behind his opponent – to the tune of 30-70.

As expected, respondents reportedly commented that Pacquiao remains their ‘Idol’ atop the ring but not in the political arena.

Three weeks ago, I met a professor from Ateneo de Davao University who said his group conducted a similar survey in 2007, reportedly commissioned by Pacquiao’s trusted legal counsel.  Manny then was running against Rep. Darlene Antonino Custodio who was seeking re-election in the 2nd District of South Cotabato. The same result came out and it proved accurate when Manny lost miserably in the congressional race.

Three years after and with his popularity reaching unprecedented heights, Manny still appears unacceptable as a politician if the recent survey is true.

Manny’s prolonged absence has without doubt contributed to the snail-like pace of his campaign.

While he continues to be in the limelight because of his upcoming fight against Ghanian Joshua Clottey, he has been kept from directly giving his campaign a direct hand.

This probably explains the heightened attacks his camp is launching against his political rivals.

Manny is facing not only a well oiled machinery of the Chiongbians whose scion Roy is gunning for the lone congressional seat of Sarangani that will be vacated by his older brother Erwin Chiongbian.  He is also up against an equally popular young governor who virtually ran unopposed in 2007.

It is not helping his camp by picking up issues which Manny cannot adequately defend.

I have always questioned the wisdom of his legal team questioning the residency of Roy Chiongbian, whose family has been in Sarangani since the early ’60s, long before Manny’s estranged parents probably met and years before they settled in General Santos in the late ’70s.

In the same manner that Roy’s camp should not have even bothered filing a similar disqualification case against Manny, a long-time General Santos resident but who is married to Jinky Pacquiao.  Jinky is from Kiamba town of Sarangani.

His camp recently announced that it will make environment issue one of Manny’s main campaign agendas. I find nothing wrong with that. But his camp should have carefully weighed in on that agenda before coming out with statements in the press.

For one, he cannot oppose the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Maasim, Sarangani without also going up in arms against the multi-billion dollar mining project of a global mining giant.

Manny, if he chooses to stick to environment issues, should repudiate his trusted political ally in Malungon town Mayor Reynaldo Constantino who is fully supporting the copper and gold project of Xstrata Plc-controlled Sagittarius Mines Incorporated (SMI).

The SMI mining project, while based in nearby Tampakan town in South Cotabato, also has extensive mining development site in Sarangani.

Additionally, Manny should advise his ‘advisers’ to come up with better arguments and accurate data in opposing a multi-million dollar project in Sarangani.

It will not do him any good hiring blabber mouths whose expertise are sorely lacking.

And it will not likewise pay him any better having disgruntled politicians around him whose main agenda is to dip their hands into Manny’s deep pocket for the duration of the campaign.

Manny, I was told, sacrificed his badly-need presence in Sarangani to load himself up with campaign funds.  That is why he took the Clottey fight even if it meant giving Chiongbian headway in the campaign.

And mind you, Manny already reportedly made cash advances from Top Rank’s Bob Arum to keep his ward leaders and candidate-mayors happy while he is away.

The survey must have alarmed his political camp here. It has frantically sought space and time in the media.  But in so doing, his advisers only exposed Manny’s lack of appreciation of the intricacies and nuances of local politics.

I will bet his advisers will run out of arguments and cannot sustain the issues they want Manny to carry.

Wait until his rivals start hitting Manny’s close circle of friends and the cookie will start to crumble.

Those are realities of the times that Manny still have to learn.