Politics again for Noy? Never say never

MANILA, Philippines – He is looking forward to catching up on his reading and taking the wheel again for an easy drive to the provinces, but President Aquino – who bows out in three days – isn’t saying “never” to future political plans.

Asked if like two of his predecessors – Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo – he plans to run for local office after occupying the highest post in the land, the President told us during a recent tour of Malacañang Palace, “None at the moment.”

We were then at the Aguinaldo Room at Malacañang, where he presides over Cabinet meetings, and when asked if he would be bored after a few months as a private citizen, Aquino smiled, “I am sure I will find things with which to occupy myself.”

(At a recent dinner with women in media, the President said categorically he doesn’t own a PlayStation and is not fond of video games, as rumored.)

Sources close to him said the President, who is leaving behind a robust economy that saw continued straight growth not seen in 40 years, is considering accepting invitations to go on a lecture series here and abroad.

He isn’t closing the door either on marriage and already has a wedding song in mind if ever he walks down the aisle.

But before then, he plans to work till his last hour as President. Before noon on  June 30, he will welcome president-elect Rodrigo Duterte at Malacañang and witness him sign the guestbook. He will have his final military honors as President at the Palace lawn before he departs Malacañang for the last time as President in a leased Toyota Land Cruiser, the same one he uses as President.

Like his late mother, former president Corazon Aquino, he will proceed to the family home on No. 5 Times Street, which has been rebuilt. A replica of the old bungalow built by his parents on that lot will rise at the Quezon Memorial Circle.

“All of us in the government, and those who have helped us, can all look back and say there’s really such an abundance of achievements in so many different fronts. There’s so much that has been done. There’s a sense of accomplishment. There’s of course the (hope) that you really worked hard for it and hopefully it continues and proceeds to the next higher level,” he said.

What was his happiest moment as President?

“Can I go back? Try to picture it, in 2009 when certain sectors were asking me to run, I knew this country had a lot of problems. I also knew that there were a lot of problems that we didn’t know enough details about, and were successfully hidden from us. My happiest moment – there was this lady, she was an OFW, she got contract substituted. She finished an accountancy program. She was promised a job as a cashier. She winds up in the Middle East as a domestic helper. She was maltreated. She escaped, she gets in touch with our embassy, was given P500 as a travel allowance back to her province in Pangasinan. She was despondent enough to think about committing suicide. But after she graduated from the TESDA programs after her return, she was employed by a spa. Eventually, she gets promoted to become Operations Manager. But that’s not the end of the story. She now owns her own spas, four spas in Pangasinan, and is already in the step of franchising her operations.”

Though he has seen the depths of the loneliest valleys as President, he says he has never shed a tear in frustration or loneliness, the way he cried by his lonesome on the rooftop of the Makati Medical Center after his mother passed away from cancer in 2009.

“I feel that I belong to the people. Even in private, what I do as President gets magnified by everybody around me. Talagang pag ako nanghina, lahat sila manghihina (If I falter, my men will falter, too.) Lead by example, that’s my philosophy,” he said.

Even in the privacy of his own room?

“Parang idadaan mo sa dasal. Sasabihin ko ‘Mom,’ ‘Dad’ or minsan sabay sila, ‘Pagdasal niyo naman kami dito!’ (I made it by the grace of prayers. I say, ‘Mom, Dad,’ or sometimes both at the same time, ‘Pray for us down here.’”)

As he steps down after six years as President, what vows to himself has he kept, even when the going got rough, and rougher?

“My promise to myself when I took office was to to utilize every single second in further improving the lives of the Filipino people, I think I’ve been true to that.”