Aquino visits bone cancer patient on his birthday

MANILA -- A young boy suffering from bone cancer got a special visit at his hospital room from no less than President Benigno Aquino III who was celebrating his 53rd birthday Friday.

"You are also wondering what happened this morning, the President visited a young boy – Jericho Rafols – he is a 15-year-old bone cancer patient at the Philippine Orthopedic Center," Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Secretary Ramon Carandang said during a press briefing.

He said that it was Jericho's wish to meet Aquino "and so the President took time off from his schedule." Aquino went to the hospital after his meeting with the Presidential Management Staff, Carandang added.

In his earlier interview, the Chief Executive said he wanted his birthday celebration to be simple by spending it with his family and some friends.

Carandang said the members of the Presidential Security Group, who accompanies the Aquino in her daily activities, were the first group to greet President on his birthday.

The Cabinet official earlier said that the President's birthday will just be another ordinary working day.

The President is set to preside over a full Cabinet meeting this afternoon.

"We will be talking mostly about economic matters. There will be reports from Secretary Abad about the fiscal condition. There will be some discussion about the macroeconomic numbers also. As you know, the Cabinet tends to meet in clusters but occasionally, we will need to convene the entire Cabinet just to be able to more efficiently share information. So that is the purpose of today's Cabinet meeting," said Carandang when asked about the agenda of the meeting. (Jill Beltran/Sunnex)