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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/aquino-times-street-sm.webp" alt="Aquino in times street" />
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(Aquino at Times Street) 
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I've always maintained that Aquino was a fake tough guy, anyway. The tough-talking, kanto boy-sounding Noynoy, after all, was just a figment of his speechwriters' imagination; the guy lived a rich kid's sheltered life until his mother died, an event that propelled him almost immediately afterwards to the presidency—a job that put even more distance between him and the people and the daily realities that they face.


And so I wasn't surprised that Aquino, when the very first opportunity presented itself to him to face people who did not belong to his household now that he is no longer the all-powerful president, refused to leave 25 Times Street. Aquino said he wanted to watch Duterte's first State of the Nation Address at home on television, so he would not be distracted.


But Aquino was lying again, just like he lied so many times during the six years that he was president. The truth is, he was scared.


He was scared of being blamed for the wrong things he did and didn't do while he was still in office by someone like Duterte, who by now has a fairly accurate idea of what went down in the last six years. And he was deathly afraid of being anywhere near his own predecessor, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, just recently freed by the Supreme Court after six years of judicial persecution on Noynoy's orders.


He was scared to see all the congressmen and senators whom he bribed and bullied in order to have his way with them. He was probably ashamed to see what they did right after he left the presidency, which is to leave his party en masse, after they had professed their loyalty to him for six long years.


Perhaps he was even scared of facing the media, who would still point their microphones at him but who would be treating him with markedly less respect, now that he's just another ex-president. Or perhaps he is frightened of being with so many important people and having none of his sisters (who have played the tag-team role of his mother's replacement) around.


And so, Aquino was the only living ex-president who didn't go to Duterte's SONA. And you know what else?


I think nobody really cared.




Sources: 

<ol class="article-sources">
<li>
Two ex-presidents, Lowdown by Jojo Robles, July 27, 2016, (<a href="http://goo.gl/sh5dni" class="news_link" title="Source" target="_blank">http://goo.gl/sh5dni</a>)
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</ol>

(Most of this article is adapted from the source listed above. We are unable to grant permission for any kind of reproduction of this article other than social media shares.)

The frightened, pretend tough guy BS Aquino