P-Noy admits seeing Grace

MANILA, Philippines - “We’re seeing each other.”

With this candid reply, President Aquino confirmed yesterday persistent reports that he was seen having dinner with TV personality Grace Lee, a showbiz anchor of GMA-7.

“Well, we are seeing each other,” the 51-year-old bachelor admitted to Palace reporters in a chance interview during the 25th anniversary celebration of the Philippine Information Agency, whose head office is along Visayas Avenue in Quezon City.

The crowd initially burst into laughter when the question was asked by radio reporter Tuesday Niu of dzBB – GMA-7’s radio station – but which later turned into shouts of “Yehey!” when Aquino made the revelation.

Aquino clammed up, however, when pressed for details.

“I think I’ll leave it at that,” the smiling President remarked, at the same time invoking his constitutional right to privacy.

“Under the Constitution there is a right to privacy. May I be entitled to even a portion of that right under Article III,” the President said in Filipino.

Lee, for her part, confirmed the President’s response.

“What the President said is true,” she told co-host Raffy Tima in GMA-7’s “Balitanghali.” “I don’t think there’s room for clarification because what the President said was very simple.”

The reported dinner of Aquino and Lee had been the topic of social networking sites for quite sometime now.

They were reportedly seen in a posh restaurant, along with another pair, shortly after Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra paid a courtesy call on the President recently.

It was disc jockey Mo Twister who broke the story in his Twitter account, after Lee, his fellow DJ in Magic 89.9, confirmed to him that she indeed had dinner with the Chief Executive a few weeks back.

“Just asked Grace Lee if it’s true that she had dinner with President Aquino. She said she did,” Twister wrote in his Twitter account, when talk about their reported date made the rounds of social networking sites.

Lee, a Korean national who is also a popular figure in Cebu City, had an exclusive interview with Aquino at Malacañang last Dec. 23 for Magic 89.9.

Aquino had referred to Lee as gwapa or beautiful and good-looking when he inaugurated the KEPCO-SPC power plant in Cebu in mid-2011.

The event was hosted by Lee, who was then wearing a Korean costume.

She caught the attention of the President, who was then with Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.