{"id":15208,"date":"2014-06-15T00:31:30","date_gmt":"2014-06-14T16:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=15208"},"modified":"2014-06-16T00:50:58","modified_gmt":"2014-06-15T16:50:58","slug":"palace-president-aquinos-advice-in-selecting-next-leaders-not-meant-to-discriminate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/06\/15\/palace-president-aquinos-advice-in-selecting-next-leaders-not-meant-to-discriminate\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace: President Aquino\u2019s advice in selecting next leaders not meant to discriminate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"President<\/a>
President Benigno S. Aquino III delivers his speech during the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Thanksgiving Celebration 2014 at the CAAP Covered Court, CAAP Central Office in Old MIA Road, Pasay City on Friday (May 02). (Photo by Lauro Montellano Jr. \/ Malaca\u00f1ang Photo Bureau)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u00a0— President Benigno S. Aquino III\u2019s advice to the public in selecting the country\u2019s next leaders did not mean to discriminate a group of people, a Malacanang official said on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte raised the issue following criticisms hurled at the President when he urged the public not to vote for a candidate who is merely \u201cgood at reading scripts, dancing or singing\u201d during a speech he delivered during the Independence Day rites held in Naga City.<\/p>\n

The President said that voters had the responsibility to ensure that the Philippines was more just and progressive than it was in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe message of the President (was) not directed to a group of people or was not meant to discriminate against a group of people,\u201d Valte said in an interview over state-run dzRB radio.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point of the President merely was to say that when voters consider electing an official, it should not end there. They should also look at the qualifications of the candidate,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Valte stressed that voting a candidate should not be based on popularity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is public office. Public office is a public trust. Someone putting himself up for election should have the qualifications and not be good at singing or dancing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is clear in his speech what he meant. There are just some groups who want to muddle the issue,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Benigno S. Aquino III\u2019s advice to the public in selecting the country\u2019s next leaders did not mean to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":12584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,95],"tags":[392,193],"class_list":["post-15208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news-ph","tag-pdaf-scam","tag-pnoy","mauthors-azer-n-parrocha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}