MANILA -- President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III on Wednesday reacted on the issue of being late in meeting his schedules.

Aquino said he finds it “a bit unfair” to say that he is always late and questions his punctuality in every event that he is attending.

“I am not everytime late and in fact, I want this to put on record, on June 30 during the induction of Cabinet members, how can I be late when I was already in Malacanang? They told me that it is not proper for me to wait for others so they put me in the holding room and made me wait for the others. After that incident, I am always late. I think that is a bit unfair.”

As explanation to his tardiness during the Red Mass of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) at Manila Cathedral Wednesday morning, he said he had an upset stomach and was not able to sleep Tuesday night due to brownouts.

The President also clarified that he was supposed to be early during the change of command at Camp Aguinaldo last Friday but his securities and his driver said he will be coming so early at the event, which they believed is not good also.

He recalled that his late mother President Corazon Aquino preferred to go to an event five minutes before the schedule so that the people will not wait for so long or be pressured to start ahead of time if she came too early.

Aquino maintained that he will still refrain from using siren because he feels happy to see his countrymen following him as example. (Jill Beltran/Sunnex)