P-Noy on love life: That's my business

LONDON – President Aquino on Wednesday declined to talk about the woman he was reportedly seeing at the moment, saying it was his “business.”

According to sources, the President is dating a banker who is either 28 or 29 years old and that he knows her parents.

Transportation and Communications Secretary Manuel Roxas II also clarified a STAR report saying he was present at the restaurant in Bonifacio High Street Central in Taguig City when the President was spotted with the woman.

Roxas said the tweet about him being there was false.

In a media briefing with reporters Wednesday as he was about to wrap up his official visit here, Aquino’s response to a question on whether he was dating again was: “Yun naman ang tinatawag nating (That’s what we call) my business. Thank you.”

Aquino’s love life became an issue again after the country’s most prominent widower, House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., advised the country’s most eligible bachelor to get married.

“Well, what can you say? Everybody here is hoping you will settle down,” Belmonte told Aquino.

The 75-year-old Belmonte was asked about his advice to Aquino after he expressed support for the legalization of divorce in the Philippines.

Based on reports, Belmonte’s own love life became a subject of reports after he quipped on Monday that he would have to show his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth to his girlfriend first before publishing it.

Critics have said that Aquino, despite protestations of privacy, uses his love life as a means of distracting the public from his administration’s lack of accomplishments.

But Belmonte said the President has proven his critics wrong based on his accomplishments on reforms and the economy.

“Some are saying to just give him two years and he will self-destruct. Well, on the contrary, in two years’ time I think among all presidents in this stage of their career, he continues to have high ratings. You can see that he’s gathering momentum again,” Belmonte said. – With Paolo Romero