Manny Pacquiao bows out of Twitterverse

Can't we just let Manny be?! Too many Pacman haters on Twitter it seems...

Sarangani representative and boxing giant Manny Pacquiao seems to have thrown in the towel on Twitter, deleting his account in the wake of criticism of his online behavior and absence from Congress.

Pacquiao shook up the Twitterverse on the morning of March 22, at the height of the House voting on the impeachment of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. One of Pacquio's last tweets was his "no" vote. He earlier tweeted that he will soon delete his Twitter account, but this tweet was deleted shortly after.

At around 4:20pm on March 22, Pacquiao deleted his Twitter account @congMP, less than 24 hours after he was called out for reacting harshly to online criticism.

On the evening of March 21, Pacquiao was in Baguio training for his May bout against Shane Moseley. Despite his absence from Congressional proceedings, he managed to air his opposition to the impeachment of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez via his Twitter account.

"I vote NO! and I can give my explanation thanks," he said emphatically just a few minutes before midnight.

Tweets, taunts, tirades --- Earlier, Pacquiao tweeted that he was following the impeachment proceedings on television. "I'm watching impeachment trial very interesting topic good night everyone thanks," the absentee solon said in his unpunctuated statement.

"Why are you not at the plenary?" asked blogger Noemi Dado via Twitter, under the username @momblogger.

Pacquiao shot back: "@momblogger e di mag reklamo ka doon sa lolo mo hahahaha thanks" (Go tell it to your grandpa!)

Dado responded calmly: "bitaw kinsang lolo? I want to see you in Congress. keep missing you for interview" (Really, whose grandpa?)

But not all Twitter users were as composed.

"to h*ll with @congmp. Why the f**k did you run for congress when you know you’d barely be present?" said @RAndRat.

To which a piqued Pacquiao responded by reiterating his earlier comment: "e di mag reklamo ka sa lolo mong panot hahahaha" (Go tell it to your balding grandpa!)

Other Twitter users pulled no punches with Pacquiao, hitting him for his absence from the House proceedings on the articles of impeachment which ended in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

"@momblogger foul ata yung reply ni manny. Ang linaw ng tanong eh," noted @armanzz.
"he shouldn't tweet that way. he is, after all, a billionaire congressman," said @emvisi.
"You may be trying to folksy and humorous, @CongMP, but the matter at hand is too serious to be flippant about," opined @jesterinexile. "because @CongMP is absent, saranggani province has no say in a national issue. that is irresponsible beyond belief," he added.

Tirades from netizens hitting him on his tweets finally pushed Pacquiao to throw in his towel: “Sorry everyone but hanggang dito nalang delete ko na account ko thank you very much to all your support." (sic)

Account closed --- Pacquiao made good on his word just a few hours later, in the afternoon of March 22. The deletion of @congMP ended Pacquiao's brief foray into social media.

The account was created just a month earlier, on February 23, in the wake of a spurious but verified Twitter account impersonating Pacquiao.