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July 27, 2021

A passionate, compassionate President: Sen. Grace Poe, during Tuesday’s hybrid plenary session, says the late President Benigno S. Aquino III has an “odd way” of expressing his emotions. “Sometimes, it looks like he has no emotion whatsoever. He looked the same whether he was sad or happy. But that doesn't mean that he lacked compassion. He was very compassionate, and he was very passionate about what he wanted to do for our country to see our people in a better place. And you know, you will know the character of a person when you see how he deals with children and the elders,” Poe said. She also recalled that Aquino never tried to influence her in his favor to change the report of the Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs investigations into the anti-terrorist operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao, that ended in the death of 44 police commandos, 17 Muslim rebels, and at least seven civilians in 2015. During the Aquino administration, Poe said the country’s economy improved, the inflation rate was less than 1 percent and the unemployment rate was less than 6 percent. “Let us carry over to the next administration and to the following administrations all the good that we obtain in whatever administration, not because of any political divisions, but because we love our country, maybe equally, but in different ways we show it,” Poe said. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)

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