Noy to celebrate Christmas with family

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino will spend Christmas with his family and get the chance to have a four-day working vacation starting tomorrow.

Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Secretary Ricky Carandang said yesterday the President would celebrate Christmas with his family, both Cojuangcos and Aquinos.

Tomorrow until Dec. 29, the President will be in Tarlac and Baquio cities with Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras and other personal friends.

Carandang said the President would be back in Manila on Dec. 30 for the celebration of Rizal Day.

He said Undersecretary Manuel Quezon III suggested an extended break until the first few days of January but there was no decision yet on that.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona had advised the President to take a break because he recently got sick in Australia and before his trip to Cambodia.

The President said that whenever he needed to relax, he would normally listen to music for about an hour.

“I read a lot of magazines, used to be books but unfortunately the job entails so much reading. So the entertainment has to be magazines on military history, on stereo equipment, on cars, on guns and so many others, something that will just turn off or give me a pause as to the other concerns,” Aquino said.

“Once a week, I go target shooting and we also use it as a training venue for members of the PSG (Presidential Security Group). I might have three days off this Christmas break. It was supposed to be four days but they took one day already so, three (days),” he said.

The President said his many concerns would include the 10 million Filipinos abroad and world events affecting them and the country.

“I’m fixated that I have six years to effect not just changes but transformational changes that will stick. So I’ve given myself that pressure that I have to be able to face everybody by 2016. So I maximize the opportunity for everybody’s benefit, to have that inclusive growth,” Aquino said.