Muslim rebels, Filipino soldiers to watch Pacquiao-Mayweather bout

In a rare common cause, both rebels and soldiers in the war-torn southern Philippines will watch local boxing icon Manny Pacquiao take on Floyd Mayweather, with hopes that Sunday’s mega-bout will bring a brief respite from violence. The Muslim rebels and government forces will have separate free viewings of the Las Vegas clash, as the nation waits to see whether Pacquiao will triumph during the epic fight.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the country’s largest Muslim armed group, will watch the fight on a widescreen TV at a compound in the southern province of Maguindanao on Sunday, said MILF vice-chairman Ghadzali Jaafar. “They asked me if they could show it outside my office. I told them okay, I see no problem with that,” Jaafar said. He said both MILF members and non-members were free to attend the showing in the tightly guarded compound barely a kilometre (mile) from the MILF’s heavily armed main camp. When asked whether he expects that there will be no trouble during the fight, he said: “We pray for that. That is our hope.”