Pacquiao cry "I am not thief", bank accounts frozen.

Philippine boxing hero Manny Pacquiao decries the decision of the authorities to frozen all his domestic bank accounts over allegations of unpaid taxes from lucrative fights in the United States, leaving him financially paralysed.

Manny Pacquiao

“This is harassment,” the former eight-division world champion said in an interview on ABS-CBN television, as he disclosed for the first time a freeze order issued by the Philippines’ Bureau of Internal Revenue in recent months.

The shock announcement came just two days after Pacquiao, 34, resurrected his boxing career with a unanimous points decision win over American Brandon Rios in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau.

The victory, which Pacquiao devoted to the victims of typhoon Haiyan, only added to his lustre among millions of ordinary Filipinos who idolise the fighter.

Pacquiao is now eyeing more lucrative fights in the United States. He is also pursuing a political career in the Philippines, where he is a second-term congressman with ambitions of eventually becoming president.

Pacquiao said the tax office took the action because it believed he had evaded paying 2.2 billion pesos ($50.2m) in taxes on his fights in the United States in 2008 and 2009 when he was at the peak of his career and earning tens of millions of dollars.

However, he said the tax bureau had rejected the documents he provided as proof that he had already paid to the US Internal Revenue Service.

“I am not a criminal or a thief. I am not hiding anything. I will face my problems as they come,” Pacquiao said.