President spends quiet time in Baguio

President Benigno Aquino III listens to questions during press conference. INQUIRER.NET FILE

BAGUIO CITY—President Aquino’s last New Year holiday as the country’s supreme leader at The Mansion here may well be the vacation he has always wanted.

The President, who has been in the summer capital since New Year’s Eve, has managed to keep to himself, away from prying eyes.

Baguio residents and tourists realized that Mr. Aquino was around when he had dinner on Saturday at the Baguio Country Club, and when he briefly flew out of the city early Sunday, only to return a few hours later.

Sources in Tarlac province could not say on Sunday whether Mr. Aquino had visited the wake there of his friend, Virginia Torres, who died after suffering a heart attack on Saturday.

Mr. Aquino had appointed Torres, his provincemate and shooting buddy, to head the Land Transportation Office, but she retired last year in a cloud of controversy.

No member of the media had been granted access to the President since he arrived here quietly just before 6 p.m. on Dec. 31.

Some residents, however, are appreciative of Mr. Aquino’s quiet Baguio vacations. “If he was roaming around [during the long holiday weekends], it would make traffic jams unbearable,” said a taxi driver, who asked that he not be named.

Under the radar

The President’s Baguio visits during the Christmas and New Year breaks have always been under the radar.

In 2011, Mr. Aquino spent a private New Year’s Day at The Mansion with his sisters, and did not allow any media coverage. The only reports to come out concerned a holiday gift that he had received: a mountain bike.

In 2012, he was seen by tourists at Camp John Hay. The President, accompanied by some Cabinet members and their guests, also toured Wright Park, which is just across The Mansion. Mr. Aquino paid for the horses his guests had rented at the park.

Medical rest

The President spent another private New Year holiday in 2013, apparently in compliance with medical advice to get more rest.

It was an election year and Mr. Aquino had been busy campaigning for administration candidates. During the Baguio campaign, however, the President expressed some concern about a deteriorating Baguio. He later created a task force to oversee the redevelopment of Baguio and Boracay.

The President spent a few quiet days here in the last days of 2014 but returned to Metro Manila to lead that year’s Rizal Day commemoration.

Detained former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is now a Pampanga representative, was the President that  Baguio residents were most accustomed to seeing here.

Arroyo spent most of her free time in the summer capital, usually during the Christmas and Lenten breaks.