IN few official functions that President Benigno Aquino III and Vice President Jejomar Binay were together after their falling out, the two officials broke the ice and had a good laugh during the graduation rites of the Philippine Military Academy at Fort Del Pilar in Baguio on Sunday.
The ice breaker turned out to be whose province mate was valedictorian and whose was the goat or the last in the class.
It was the first time that Aquino and Binay met a few days after the President said he regretted having Binay as his vice president and that it would have been different had it been his running mate who had won the vice presidential race.
President Aquino’s running mate in 2010 was Mar Roxas II, the ruling Liberal Party’s standard bearer, who lost to Binay by 700,000 votes.
Binay and Roxas, who is backed by the President, are squaring off again for the presidential race with the vice president running under the banner of the oppositionist United Nationalist Alliance.
Binay chose to ignore the President’s dig against him but scored a few points when he got applauded by the families of the PMA graduates when his arrival was announced while the chief executive was given the cold shoulder.
To break the ice, Binay boasted to President Aquino that the valedictorian of the PMA Gabay-Laya Class of 2016 was a province mate and a fellow Ibanag, Cadet First Class Kristian Daeve Gelacio Abiqui.
“Sabi ko kasi sa kanya, Mr. President, ‘yong valedictorian, IP (indigenous people) ‘yon, IP. Ibanag. Natutuwa ako do’n ha. Nag-Ibanag pa siya. At sinabi niya ‘yong grade school niya, doon pa sa bayan ng Nanay ko. Kasi ‘yong bayan nila dati was part of Cabagan, ‘yong San Pablo,” Binay told Aquino.
Rubbing it in, Binay added: “Saka dalawa ‘yon ah na taga-Isabela sa top 10. Pero five in all out of 63. Pero No. 1 and No. 3 taga-Isabela.”
“‘Yong pinakahuli, ang tawag dun goat. ‘Yong goat sa PNPA (Philippine National Police Academy), sabi ko sa kanya, Mr. President, balita ko kababayan mo raw ‘yon. Taga-Tarlac,” Binay told the President.
President Aquino retorted: “Oo nga, ‘di nga makatingin sa akin eh.”
Then the two started laughing.