MANILA, JANUARY 29, 2011 (TRIBUNE) President Aquino appears to have shifted his hobby from firing pistols to collecting luxury cars after he was seen riding a bullet-proof Lexus LX 570 in visiting victims of the fatal Edsa bus bombing incident who were being treated at St. Luke's Global City Hospital.
The ritzy car is aside from a P4.5-million luxury Porsche sportscar that he justified as being purchased "third-hand."
The Palace has rejected repeated demands to show the purchase documents on the Porsche to verify the sportscar's true cost but a source had said it was a gift from a businessman which has a local Porsche dealership.
The 50-year-old bachelor said he sold his two-year old BMW and took out a personal loan to buy the Porsche, which he said allowed him a relaxing drive amid his gargantuan responsibilities.
Aquino has been reported to also have another BMW, said to have been a gift from a businessman, prior to his assumption to the presidency in June last year. The BMW reportedly has bulletproof windows and one inside the car can hear just what those outside are saying He has also been seen driving a red Lamborghini.
A car dealer said the new Aquino vehicle costs around P6.8 million and bullet proofing costs about $70,000 or around P3.5 million.
Groups criticized the new presidential hobby as "out of character". "He had campaigned against luxury cars and here he is, buying a Porsche," Milo Tanchuling, secretary general of the activist group Freedom from Debt Coalition, had said.
Also seen being driven in a mahogany top of the line Mercedes-Benz is the cash-laden DSWD secretary, Corazon "Dinky" Soliman.
Aquino, when he assumed the presidency, also ordered government agencies to refrain from buying luxury cars as service vehicles as part of government's austerity measures.
Aquino won the elections last year on an anti-corruption pledge of clean government and an end to wasteful spending that he said was the cause of widespread poverty.
Aquino has been known to take the wheel from his personal driver in the past during provincial trips, and once said he considered long drives on smooth highways as among the small luxuries he enjoys.
Speaking to reporters who had questioned him on the Porsche purchase, Aquino said there was nothing irregular in acquiring a used luxury car because the money that was paid for it did not come from government coffers.
"It is not the government that paid for it. I sold my other car and it so happened that there was a buyer and that is where I drew the payment for this (Porsche) car. And if we feel refreshed and relaxed from time to time, I guess that helps us to make decisions," Aquino saidd in Filipino.
But he and his aides continue to refuse to make the documents on the purchase of the Porsche public.
Aquino tested his Porsche shortly after acquiring it last Dec. 26 in a two-kilometer private race track at the Clark Freeport where Porsche owners and other race car buffs drive their toys around, according to a report.
Lacierda said he saw Aquino drive the white Porsche 2007 model during the Christmas party of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office. He added that the President bought that car as a Christmas present for himself.
Bullet-proof Lexus is brod in-law's, says Noy By Aytch S. de la Cruz 01/29/2011
Bothered by the latest alleged intrigue about his new bullet-proof sports utility vehicle (SUV), President Aquino came down to the media's quarters late afternoon yesterday to personally explain how he got the Lexus LX 570 which was reportedly worth P8.5-million.
Reacting to the report published by the Tribune's Friday edition, Aquino claimed the new SUV was actually a replacement for the presidential limousine, a Mercedes Benz, which was left to him by his predecessor upon learning that it has been damaged when typhoon "Ondoy" ravaged most parts of Metro Manila, including Malacañang's freedom park.
The Mercedes Benz was the vehicle that then outgoing President Arroyo and incoming president, Noynoy Aquino, utilized for Aquino's inaugural at the Luneta Park which was after the Ondoy-Pepeng typhoons.
Aquino said he never purchased the Lexus because it came from his brother-in-law who is actually leasing the vehicle for him, for security purposes, to spare the government from spending just to buy an alternative vehicle for his official use.
Aquino, however, did not identify his brother in law. He has at least three, not counting the estranged husband of his sister Kris Aquino, who is seeking an annulment of her marriage to the basketball star.
"The vehicle I was using earlier and I'm using now is a security vehicle. I cannot discuss with you its security features, what capacities, because it would be tantamount to informing my enemies how to prepare. But I did not buy it. If you don't mind, let's leave it at that. I do not want to go into any detail because they might think about researching on its capabilities," Aquino explained.
Aquino was seen on TV in a top of the line Lexus, while on his way to a hospital in Makati City, after the Edsa bus bombing incident.
According to other reports, aside from his recently purchased 2007 white Porsche, Aquino allegedly was also spotted driving a red Lamborghini which the Chief Executive vehemently denied, claiming that he never even saw such kind of luxury car being driven in Metro Manila.
In a separate phone interview, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon 'Dinky' Soliman also denied having owned a Mercedes Benz.
Soliman said the only cars registered under her name were a Toyota Vios, Toyota Revo, and a Hyundai Santa Fe. She has branded the reoport as "fresh intrigues" being leveled against her and that this was "unfair" adding that the person who fed the information to the Tribune should have verified the facts first.
The Tribune source stands pat on his story. The Tribune report never said that Soliman owned the top of the line dark brown Mercedes-benz, only that she has been seen being driven in one.
Aquino was first spotted with the Lexus when he visited the victims of the recent Makati bus blast at the St. Luke's Medical Center. He used the same vehicle when he attended an official engagement Friday morning inside Malacanag's Rizal Hall.
The Chief Executive also appealed to the media that instead of creating a fuss over his new presidential vehicle, they could have paid more attention to the P24-billion dividends turned over to him by the government-owned and –controlled corporations.
Malacañang also yesterday asked those who are reportedly planning to organize an anti-Aquino administration movement to refrain from raising speculations and predictions that Aquino won't be able to finish his six-year term should he fail to address all the security issues presently challenging his administration.
The said group is composed of his mother, the late President Corazon Aquino's followers, who apparently have added themselves to the growing number of people who are disillusioned at the younger Aquino.
"We are always open to them. If they have any concerns, they could have easily approached us. But, again, this is a free country. They have the right to express whatever grievances they have. But we can assure them that we are doing everything that we can. In fact, if they are less myopic, they will see that there is development going on," said presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda in a post-briefing interview when asked on the Palace's thoughts on this latest set of Aquino's detractors.
Lacierda maintained that the ongoing issue about the perceived rise of criminality in the country is just a product of mass media's sensationalism because they have the statistics to prove that crime rates have actually gone down since Aquino assumed the presidency.
"Against all sensationalized reporting of criminality going on, the truth of the matter is, it has gone down and whenever there is a situation and incidents such as the bus bombing, we immediately convene the security cluster, the National Security Adviser is there, the Secretary of Interior and Local Government, Chief PNP, AFP units are also there. So there is a coherent attempt, effort to solve the problem and this has been going on," Lacierda insisted.
"Do not go ahead of our intelligence groups. They are all studying the matter. Our security forces are on top of the situation. If ever there are no responses of it (being felt as yet) this is because the information is still being validated… So there is no truth to assertions that the government does not take these information seriously," Lacierda added.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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