PNoy meets with Pinoys in Paris. President Benigno Aquino III addresses members of the Filipino Community during a meeting with the Pinoy expatriates at the Chapelle Sainte Bernadette in Paris on Wednesday, September 17. Aquino is in France as part of his four-nation European tour. Before this, Aquino went to Spain and Belgium. He is expected to visit Germany next before proceeding to the US. Ryan Lim
After his budget secretary was nearly mobbed by students at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, President Benigno Aquino III received a warm welcome from a UP alumnus in France.
Following a speech and a forum at the French Institute for International Relations, or Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI), Aquino got a pleasant surprise after a tall Frenchman greeted him in Filipino.
“Maligayang pagdating po sa inyo dito sa France,” Wesley Romain told Aquino.
Romain learned to speak Filipino when he was an exchange student at the University of the Philipines from 2012 to 2014.
Because of his height og 6’5″, Aquino even joked if he could recruit Romain to play basketball for the Philippine national team.
Aquino’s close friend and political ally, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, was nearly mobbed by student-activists after attending a forum at the UP Diliman on Wednesday night.
Aquino himself was at the receiving end of heckling by student-protesters a few times before.
Before flying to Germany to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel, Aquino went to the Louvre Museum, where the Mona Lisa was housed, for a private tour.
In Joseph Morong’s report in 24 Oras Friday, a Vietnamese journalist asked Aquino during the forum how small nations like Vietnam and the Philippines could help each other to raise their claims on the West Philippine Sea.
Aquino replied that both Vietnam and the Philippines have been working together. He stressed that both countries are not giving up their rights on the West Philippine Sea.
He also said that Vietnam and the Philippines were willing to extend a hand to those whose rights have been trampled upon.
He was also asked about the Islamic state in the Philippines and the next steps of the government for the Bangsamoro.
“We are very optimistic about the Bangsamoro. Mindanao is a land of promise,” Aquino said.
