US envoy sees 'parallels' between Aquino, Obama

Youth and dynamism form "remarkable" parallels between United States President Barack Obama II and new Philippine President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, US Ambassador to the Philippines Harry Thomas Jr. said Thursday. Thomas, in an interview on dzBB radio, said both leaders were elected amid high hopes from their respective constituents. "Yesterday [Wednesday] when I saw President Aquino inaugurated, the parallels were remarkable. We had young dynamic presidents, and you look at the crowd, they were both so hopeful," he said. He said that like [what] the American people asked of Obama in his inauguration in 2009, Filipinos now want Aquino to "lead us out, change, make things happen, bring us good government, jobs, and weed out corruption." Thomas said this shows Filipinos "want democracy, effective government, jobs, education for their children, just like we do in the US." "And we're going to try to partner with you on those issues in which President Aquino would like us to work with," he added. On the other hand, he said Obama sees himself as partly Asian having been raised in Hawaii and Indonesia. "We hope both presidents will be able to establish a relationship but more important is the relationship between our two great nations," he said. — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV