Noynoy to meet with religious leader Quiboloy on Friday

SURIGAO CITY, Surigao del Norte — Senator Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III will meet with Pastor Apollo Quiboloy on Friday to personally explain his absence during the religious leader's presidential forum earlier this week. The meeting, which is not open to the media, will take place in Davao City after Aquino’s engagements with local radio stations here. Aquino said he expects to be accompanied by his running mate, Senator Manuel "Mar" Roxas II. [See: Noynoy to personally explain absence to Pastor Quiboloy] "Siguro naman e talagang aminado kami [na] nag-commit kami doon, di lang inaasahan magkakaroon ng sipon at ipagbabawal ng duktor ang paglipad. Kailangan siguro ipaliwanag ko in a personal way bakit di namin na-meet ang obligation namin," Aquino told reporters in a press briefing late Thursday night. (Admittedly we did commit to attend [that forum], we just didn't expect that I would have the flu and the doctor will advise me not to travel by aircraft. Perhaps I need to explain in a personal why we were not able to fulfill that obligation.) No more debates? At the same time, Noynoy said he is no longer interested in attending presidential debates, except the one being planned against his closest rival, Senator Manuel Villar Jr. of the Nacionalista Party. "I’ll be very honest with you, sino ba nakikinig doon? Hindi ang target market natin. Cost effectivity noon, tatlong oras ang debate, isang araw mag-review ng notes mo leading to the debate, tapos sa dulo may tatlong minuto magsasalita baka makatagpo pa ng [partial] moderator," Aquino said. (I'll be very honest with you, who will listen to that? Not our target market. Look at the cost effectivity [in participating in the event]: the debate is three hours, you have to review your notes for one whole day leading to the debate, and in the end you'll only speak for three minutes. You might even end up with a [partial] moderator.) Barosinusitis Aquino fell ill with barosinusitis — a condition that occurs mostly among scuba divers and frequent fliers — when Quiboloy held his presidential forum in Davao City last Tuesday. Noynoy sent Quiboloy a letter of apology for his absence, but the religious leader still expressed disappointment as the forum was rescheduled to March 9 from its original date of February 11 just to accommodate the Liberal Party standard-bearer. "They said they won’t be able to make it on time so I asked them to choose a date. Senator Aquino chose March 9 and they committed to come at this date," Quiboloy said in a speech before the forum. "I would like to tell all of you, who are as disappointed just like me, what commitment is. Commitment is your word of honor. When you fail to fulfill your commitment, you have no word and you have no honor," Quiboloy added. Noynoy said it was important for him to regain Quiboloy's trust, saying his father, the late Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., taught him the value of keeping one's word." 'Partial moderator' In expressing disinterest in attending future presidential debates, Noynoy was apparently recalling an incident wherein he felt that the moderator was biased in favor of Villar. Last February 17, Aquino cried foul over a perceived bias against him by Tony Lopez, the moderator of a forum hosted by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce Industry. At the start of the forum, Lopez introduced Villar in thinly-veiled optimistic tones as a “former future president," while he introduced Aquino, with a touch of sarcasm, as the candidate who came from a “good pedigree of heroes." But it's all systems go for the planned one-on-one debate with Villar. Aquino said his camp has already sent Villar their proposal on the format of the one-on-one debate, but said Villar's camp has yet to respond even though Villar has told the media that he is willing to participate in such a debate. Aquino said, however, that he was told that there had been reports that Villar already made a statement to the media regarding the date of the debate. "Tinanong ko [ang] staff namin at walang feedback to include petsa (date), walang agreement on anything, walang response sa pagkaintindi ko to anything. Sana naman di sila may alam at di namin pinuntahan ang di namin alam e masisi kaming di sinipot ang debate (I asked our staff, and they said there has been no feedback regarding the date, no agreement on anything, no response, I guess, to anything. I hope they will not keep the date to themselves and then say we snubbed the debate)," he said. — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV