Pacquiao to welcome WBC delegates in Manila Nov. 11-17

Philippine boxing icon Manny Pacquiao will welcome participants to the 45th World Boxing Council (WBC) Convention set Nov. 11-17 at the Manila Hotel. A statement from the Games and Amusement Board said that Pacquiao will be part of the country's team, which will host WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman who is scheduled to arrive in the Philippines on Thursday to lead the WBC pre-convention activities along with GAB Chairman Eric Buhain. A big part of the convention delegates are referees, judges, managers and trainers. The same statement said that some of the delegates will be joining activities, including pre-convention schedules which were approved by Sulaiman himself. Part of the pre-convention activities will be visits to charitable institutions and similar projects, prior to the actual start of the conference, which expects to gather more than 600 foreign delegates as well as 400 local representatives. Buhain will lead the small entourage of government officials to welcome Sulaiman, who will then join them in visits to the wards of Philippine General Hospital in Manila and the orphanage put up by New Zealand boxing referee Bruce Mctavish for the street children of Angeles, Pampanga. The 27th Lancers Drum & Bugle Corps of the City of Makati will play the tune "We are the world," which will become the official song of the convention. The group will also play during the parade of flags of the nations and the march of the presidents of the nine affiliated continental federations. Marching with Buhain are Asian Boxing Council (ABCO) Kovid Bhakdibhumi of Thailand; Houcine Houichi of Tunisia for the African Boxing Union (ABU); Charles Giles of England for the British Boxing Board of Control; Roy Van Putten of Aruba for the Caribbean Boxing Federation (Cabofe); Edmund Lipinski of Russia for the - Aruba's Roy Van Putten CIS & Slovenia Boxing Bureau (CISBB); Wenceslao Mayorga of Nicaragua for the Central American Boxing Federation (Fecarbox); Bob Logist of Belgium for the European Boxing Union; Rex Walker of theUS for the North American Boxing Federation-USA; Frank Quill of Australia for the Oriental & Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF); and Osvaldo Bisbal of Argentina for the South American Boxing Federation (Fesubox). Sulaiman makes a grand entrance after them and a special award awaits President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who is also the guest of honor of the event. - GMANews.TV