President’s sister Pinky asks kinder pupils to pray for her brother

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet—Aurora Corazon “Pinky” Aquino-Abellada on Monday asked kindergarten pupils and their parents to pray for her brother-President who she believed had suffered a backlash from the antipork crusade.

“Who is our brother again? You’re right, it’s Noynoy. Please pray for him because he is confronting so many problems these days,” she told the children when she attended the blessing and turnover ceremony of a P750,000 building at Buyagan Elementary School here.

Abellada is the chair of Agapp Foundation—Aklat, Gabay, Aruga tungo sa Pag-angat at Pag-asa (Books, Guidance and Nurturing toward Upliftment and Hope).

The two-classroom building is among the 600 classrooms donated by Agapp Foundation to kindergarten pupils in the country.

Abellada said President Aquino was doing fine amid the issues hounding his administration.

“I hope you do not give credence to the bad commentaries about Noy because he is doing all he can, he gives all he can,” she said in Filipino.

She mentioned the government’s efforts to address the recent calamities, as well as the Zamboanga City siege, when she later spoke to reporters.

Abellada did not refer to criticisms that her brother wielded the same discretionary powers over public funds as legislators had over their pork barrel or Priority Development Assistance Fund, whose release was suspended by the Supreme Court due to a pending lawsuit.

She said no government funds were spent on the Agapp Foundation’s school-building project. She said the project, which started in 2010, intended to build 1,000 classrooms for kindergarten pupils nationwide by 2016.

The additional Buyagan classrooms were funded by Security Bank, said Melissa Aquino, Security Bank senior vice president. She said these were among the 40 classrooms that the bank had committed to build nationwide.

Sonia Dupagan, the school principal, said the new classrooms would accommodate most of her school’s 150 kindergarten pupils.

“With the turnover of two classrooms, we now have three classrooms for kindergarten pupils. We will now be able to comply with the

1:35 teacher-to-pupil ratio,” she said.

Abellada also turned over two more kindergarten classrooms on the same day at Doña Aurora Elementary School in Baguio City.