Aquino says he has no time to read Arroyo book

President Benigno Aquino III wants to read former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s memoirs to see things from a totally different perspective.

But Mr. Aquino said the problems Arroyo left for him to solve would keep him from finding time to read her book.

“It would be good if [we could read about things from] the perspective of one who’s quite different,” Mr. Aquino said when asked Wednesday to comment on reports that Arroyo was writing her memoirs.

“But … I cannot put reading her book ahead of finding solutions to [the problems] she left,” he said in an interview after Centro Escolar University conferred on him an honorary doctorate at the Manila Hotel.

At the Sandiganbayan on Wednesday, Arroyo pleaded not guilty to corruption charges the Ombudsman brought against her in connection with a $329-million government deal with Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE Corp.

After her arraignment, Arroyo, now holding her Pampanga district’s seat in the House of Representatives, told reporters that she was writing her memoirs.

She is detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center on nonbailable electoral sabotage charges filed against her by the Commission on Elections and the Department of Justice involving fraud in the 2007 senatorial elections.   Norman Bordadora