Immediate Aquino targets: More
food on table, education reforms


Sees ‘substantial’ changes in first three years of term
BY WENDELL VIGILIA

PRESIDENT-ELECT Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino hopes that the Filipino people will have "reasonable" expectations of him as the 15th President of the Republic, saying he is humble enough to admit that he does not have all the answers to the problems besetting the country.

Despite the hardships he would face, Aquino vowed to bring more food to the table and reform the "poor" educational system.

"Kung reasonable expectation di ko nakita bakit di natin magagawa," he said.

"Mas maraming pagkain ang itatanim natin, ang kakainin, palalakihin," he said. "Lahat ng bagay sa reporma, education system, sa dagdag na two to three years mako-complete yan."

"Sana reasonable (ang expectations) but I’m sure there are a lot of people thinking there has to be a night and day difference," he said in an interview at his residence on Times St., Bgy. West Triangle, in Quezon City Monday night.

He said he envisions bringing about substantial change in the first three years.

The President-elect has been repeatedly saying that his presidency will not be a walk in the park given the gravity of the problems he will inherit from President Arroyo, like the ballooning budget deficit which is expected to hit P400 billion.

Aquino said the way his parents, former President Corazon Aquino who died last August and former senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. who was assassinated in 1983, lived their lives has taught him the value of humility in public service.

"You have to be humble to say you are not Superman and Einstein combined. You don’t have all the solutions at your fingertips from yesterday. Once you are aware of your limitations, at the end of the day there are certain things to be left to God," Aquino said.

Aquino said whenever he is confronted with a challenge, "I look back at what they (his parents) managed to do and what how managed to overcome any challenge."

"I, so far, seem to pale in comparison to what they have achieved. Both of them taught us repeatedly do the best you can and entrust the rest to God," he said.

He said his parents’ lives will be his guiding light in his six-year leadership where substantial change could be made in the first three years.

He said his father only had to support the Marcos regime’s New Society to be free from incarceration but refused to do it because it was against his convictions.

Aquino said his mother "might have opted to have a very quiet life but she chose to participate to fulfill all the expectations after EDSA People Power Revolution."

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