黑料社

Even the most powerful person in the republic gets pessimistic and exhausted, too.

A few months before the expiration of his term, President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday admitted that he had been 鈥渃ynical and jaded鈥� at some point of his presidency.

鈥淚t had gotten to a point na you felt like something鈥� Somebody like Don Quixote, tilting at windmills, or 鈥榶ung sa ating expression 鈥榟itting your head on the wall or banging your head on the wall,鈥欌�� Aquino said during the Meet the Inquirer forum at the Philippine Daily Inquirer headquarters in Makati City.

鈥淧arang no matter what you did, no matter what risks you took, no matter what energy you expended it seemed you couldn鈥檛 change anything. So I have gotten to that point in time that you were getting to be cynical and jaded,鈥� he added.

Asked if he would have done things differently in his presidency if he knew what was coming his way, Aquino answered 鈥減erhaps,鈥� but added that he would not have also achieved certain milestones if he changed decisions he made in the past.

鈥淚f I could have done something and I chose not to, I would not be able to live with myself, and I subscribe to the same. So if I do that, we wouldn鈥檛 be at this position, and you name it: the investment grade, the health insurance program that covers (鈥�) already by this point in time, the 4.4 million households that are being taken care of by Pantawid Pamilya,鈥� Aquino said.

Aquino said accepting the challenge to be president of the country after the administration of former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was 鈥渧ery daunting,鈥� but added that Filipinos鈥� cooperation made his task easier.

鈥淚f I knew all of these successes will be achieved, 鈥檇i siyempre I would have volunteered in Day One. But at that time, if I can just remind everybody, we do鈥� I read it in your paper quite a lot of times the very numerous issues confounding my predecessor, and we knew that we knew was a portion of what the extent of the problems were, so it鈥檚 very daunting,鈥� Aquino said.

鈥淧eople would want solutions even before we step into office, at saka tangible results, even before we step into office. The question was would you be given enough time to effect the changes necessary? And in fairness to our people, and the faith in our people, they did. They supported the correct measures,鈥� he added. Yuji Vincent Gonzales