NOY ON HIS NO-SHOW IN 'JUAN' PREP BRIEFING: AVOIDING PHOTO OPS, IDLE CHATS
MANILA, OCTOBER 21, 2010 (MALAYA) PRESIDENT Aquino yesterday justified his skipping of the disaster preparedness briefing on super typhoon Juan last Monday, saying he was able to do more work by avoiding "photo opportunities and idle chit-chat."
Aquino, in a statement read by his spokesman Edwin Lacierda, said the excellent handling by his Cabinet secretaries of the preparations for Juan enabled him to "attend to other problems that will persist even after this storm has passed."
Aquino said he presided the meeting of the Anti-Poverty Cabinet Cluster Monday morning and met with five governors from Mindanao in the afternoon.
"Instead of engaging in rehearsed photo opportunities and idle chit-chat, we got the job done: We proved that, together, we can mitigate risk; and that Filipinos working together, minimized of the costs of natural disasters," he said.
At the meeting of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council at Camp Aguinaldo that Aquino did not attend, Cabinet secretaries, and military and police officials gave updates on their preparations for Juan's landfall in Isabela province.
Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. attended in Aquino's stead. Also present were presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda and Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Secretary Ramon Carandang.
Lacierda and Carandang said Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin briefed Aquino on the preparations for Juan and advised him there was no need for his presence at the NDRRMC meeting.
Lacierda belied talks Aquino failed to attend the NDRRMC meeting because he and his stylist, Liz Uy, had a date late Sunday night.
Lacierda said Aquino on Sunday was reviewing briefing papers on the preparations for super typhoon Juan's arrival.
Lacierda said at the Anti-Poverty Cluster meeting, Cabinet secretaries presented to Aquino their proposed poverty reduction program but the President asked for a more comprehensive and rigorous master plan for the next five years which would set a benchmark of such as poverty reduction rate per household. - Regina Bengco
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