Manny Pacquiao suffers huge dip in Philippine election polls after controversial anti-gay comments

'It appears that his comments on the same-sex marriage issue have hurt his numbers'

The 37-year-old Fillipino boxer's popularity dropped 12 percentage points (Getty Images)

Manny Pacquiao’s popularity in his Philippines election campaign has reportedly declined in the wake of his controversial remarks that homosexuals are “worse than animals”.

Last month the boxer came under fire for his anti-gay stance, with the "abhorrent" comments prompting sponsor Nike to terminate its contract with him.

The first and only eight-division world champion has been an elected member of his country’s House of Representatives for the last eight years, but now wants to become part of the Senate.

The latest Pulse Asia survey revealed 35 per cent of respondents were in favour of Pacquiao - down 12 points on the 47 per cent who expressed support for him in January.

“There was a big drop in his numbers in the latest survey,” Ronald Holmes, president of Pulse Asia, told Reuters.

“It appears that his comments on the same-sex marriage issue had hurt his numbers, because it was widely reported in the media.”

The 37-year-old Fillipino boxer suffered the greatest losses among any candidate in the survey of 1,800 people.

In comments which later got picked up around the world, Pacquiao compared gay people to animals in an interview with local Philippines broadcaster TV5.

“It’s common sense,“ the former world champion said. ”Do you see animals mating with the same sex?

“Animals are better because they can distinguish male from female. If men mate with men and women mate with women they are worse than animals.”

After choosing to end their contract with him, Nike, the world’s largest sportswear maker, said in a statement: “We find Manny Pacquiao's comments abhorrent.”

“Nike strongly opposes discrimination of any kind and has a long history of supporting and standing up for the rights of the LGBT community. We no longer have a relationship with Manny Pacquiao.”

Pacquiao positions himself as a conservative Christian politician and endeavours to appeal to the country’s strong Catholic population.

Although Pacquiao is due to fight American boxer Timothy Bradley next month, his senatorial political rival, Waldeon Bello, has asked the electoral commission to postpone the fight, arguing it gives him an undue advertising advantage.