Aquino's trips to Asian countries next month canceled

(Updated 4:03 p.m.) President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III's scheduled trips to two Asian countries in September have been canceled, making his trip to the United States late next month his first official trip abroad as chief executive. Aquino was supposed to go to Vietnam on September 13 to 14 and Indonesia on September 14 to 15. "Canceled na yung trips, the first one will be America," Aquino said in an ambush interview in Malacañang. "Yung Indonesia, I understand, can only accommodate us sometime in October," he said. Aquino said he will no longer push through with the Vietnam trip next month because there is already an Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in Hanoi, Vietnam in late October. "I did promise that I would limit the trips to those that are absolutely necessary. As you see, Vietnam is the host for ASEAN this year and we should visit Vietnam. In keeping with our promise to be more judicious in the way we spend the people’s money, especially the fact that we have very little left, I felt it was prudent to have one trip rather than two," he said. Philippine presidents traditionally go to ASEAN countries on their first official foreign trips, but Aquino said that was not possible at this time since the MCC signing is scheduled for September but Indonesia cannot accommodate Philippine officials until October. "It's not a unilateral decision e, [it's] multilateral," he said, adding that decisions regarding his foreign trips were advised by the Department of Foreign Affairs. Aquino's activities during his US trip in late September include attending the United Nations General Assembly, witnessing the signing of the Millenium Challange Corporation's $434-million grant, and meeting with the Philippine Development Foundation in the US to discuss ways to develop information technology. US President Barack Obama had invited Aquino to come to the White House when Obama called up Aquino to congratulate him for his electoral victory last May. However, a one-on-one meeting with the US president has not been finalized. Aquino said he might talk to Obama during the UN assembly. "Perhaps in the sidelines. Not yet definite. I understand we'll all be attending the general assembly," he said. — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV