Aquino seriously thinking of marriage

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

President Benigno Aquino III has disclosed he was seriously thinking of marrying, even before June 30, 2016, his last day in office.

That is, “if the right person comes around,” he said on Tuesday at a media forum hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines at a Pasay City hotel.

The President, a middle-aged bachelor, did not provide details about his plan. He also did not say if he was currently dating.

He has repeatedly said he is still hoping to find a wife, saying that it would make him a better person and leader.

Mr. Aquino earlier told reporters he had been “planning this for a long time, since college even. But I just have been unlucky.”

He was once quoted as having said: “Given the burdens of my office, if there was someone you could confide in, someone you could talk to, someone who would tell you, ‘you are still doing OK,’ then of course, that would be a key to your inspiration.”

Asked about his political plans, he said, “I cannot run in 2016 and I have no plans yet for 2019.”

But he expressed willingness to be an “elder” or adviser to the next President.

“I’d like to think that if my help is requested by anybody, then I should always be willing to help anybody regardless of the status. And again, I will also follow my (mother President Corazon Aquino’s) dictum of not offering unsolicited advice. So I’d like to be of help but not to be a nuisance to anybody who succeeds me,” he said.

On what he would like to be remembered as President, he said he would “rather wait for my bosses (the Filipino people) to say that I am best remembered for this and for that.”

“All I can say is that at the end of the day, when I go home and I’m about to sleep and if I look at myself in the mirror, I can honestly say that ‘I did my all on that particular day, and each and every day.’ That is the mantra,” he said.

On government programs, Mr. Aquino said: “If you listened to all of our pronouncements through these years, we have always paid a premium on how we deal with our bosses.”

“At the end of the day, it’s always the Filipino people, their attitude, their drive, their optimism, their lack of it, their hope, their zealousness in pursuing anything that made everything possible.

“So I guess, the biggest challenge was actually changing the attitude from one of despondency and hopelessness, manifested in their desire to leave the country to one where there is tremendous optimism, where there is a feeling that everything is possible, that it will take only little time to achieve the particular goals.”

Perhaps, “this is clearly manifested in even the drop in the number of our overseas Filipino workers by about 400,000 based on the 2014 figures,” he said.

“So again, from people who gave up even complaining when we started in 2010 to people who are demanding that government do everything yesterday is, I think, the major challenge. Suddenly, there is renewed belief. There is renewed feeling of confidence.

“So how to change the attitude was the greatest difficulty that manifests in our ability to undertake so many different things.   So many ambitious plans even to the extent that there are studies suggesting that we will reach a high-income status perhaps as early as 25 years from now,” he said.

He said the country was “on that trajectory if we keep to the current practices and policies.”

Asked about the administration’s top accomplishments in its anticorruption campaign, he pointed out that the nation was “witness to several people, several organizations which were previously considered sacrosanct, beyond the reach and above the law.”

“Everybody has been made to account and still being made to account, including my immediate predecessor,” he said.

Asked about his greatest strength as President, he said “as an economist who pays very much attention to maximizing Philippine resources, time is a very important resource.”

“I don’t waste my time lying to anybody or listening to lies. I’d rather listen to the truth and have that truth shared. And I think that’s the greatest strength. Some of my advisers tell me, it’s also the weakness. (But) one does not lie to one’s boss… We avoid the situation of garbage in and garbage out. We arrive at a consensus that is solid and that leads to the greater ability to address any concern that we have,” he said.

That, he said, was both his strength and weakness. “My inability also to shake the truth or take out certain portions off it. That is something not native to my character.”

Are there things he will miss and not miss in his presidency?

Mr. Aquino said, “it’s opposite sides of the same coin.”

“The office enables you to effect changes really rapidly. Your opinion, in a sense, matters. The reverse of that coin is that you are responsible for anything and everything, whether you know or you don’t know about it, whether it was ever brought to your attention or not brought to your attention by everybody who is part of this government.

“You know, when I wake up and I read the newspapers and when I’m made to feel by certain people that every sin ever committed by man is my fault, that I won’t miss.”

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