Aquino: If there’s one legacy I will leave behind, it would be…

(UPDATED) Just a few months before the end of his term, President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday said the legacy that his administration would leave behind was beyond economic growth.

“If there is one legacy that we will leave behind, from apathy to talagang vigorous involvement; from the idea na ‘we can’t do anything, let’s leave the country’ to ‘we can demand everything of government yesterday,’” Aquino said during the Meet the Inquirer Multimedia forum at the Philippine Daily Inquirer headquarters in Makati City.

“So that fuels the economic aspect, ‘yung you’ve changed your perceptions of what you can expect in the Philippines, and I think that’s a primary legacy that… I think I stated it at the start na pwede na ulit mangarap during the campaign at ‘yung mga pangarap nangyayari na ngayon, (The dreams are turn into reality now.)” he added.

Aquino said he would not have achieved what he has accomplished if not for the cooperation of his administration and the Filipinos as well.

“We are wherever we are because they were always behind us,” Aquino said.

But he admitted that five years in office was not a walk in park.

Asked what the presidency has personally changed in him as person, Aquino said: “Mas marami na siguro ang sakit ng katawan ko ngayon kaysa noong araw (I probably have more ailments now.) This job really ages you.”

Aquino also shared his two cents on the public perception that he is “hard-headed” when it comes to his position on issues, saying that he only sticks to what he think is right instead of just joining the bandwagon.

“I don’t make a decision lightly, pinag-aaralan. Sa tingin namin, given what is available, this is the best solution. ‘Pag may advocate sa labas na sticks to their point, ‘di ba, parang pinupuri; ‘pag ako, ‘hard-headed,” Aquino said. “’Pag mayroong dapat ipaglaban, ang paniwala ko, talagang isagad natin ‘yung paglalaban. (If we are fighting for something, we must stand up for it.)”

“Kung kailangang hard-headed, e ‘di paninindigan ko na ho siguro ‘yung pagiging hard-headed. Pero ‘nung panahon ho ng nanay ko parang insulto ‘yung tinatawag na balimbing e o walang paninindigan… Dito naman, ‘pag talagang nanindigan ka, parang ang tigas ng ulo mo naman. So ganoon siguro talaga ang buhay. Maski anong gawin mo malalait ka,” he added.

(If we need to be hard-headed, then we should be firm in being one. But during the time of my mother, it was an insult to be called ‘balimbing’ or those without a firm stand. Here, if you stand up for something, you are called hard-headed. I think that’s how life is. Whatever you do, you’d be criticized [in a negative way],” he added.

Yuji Vincent Gonzales, INQUIRER.net/CDG/TVJ

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