Aquino eager to be a tourist

After stepping down as Philippine head of state on June 30, President Aquino yesterday expressed eagerness to finally be able to experience travel as a “tourist.” Speaking before guests present at the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2016 (ATF 2016), Aquino said that he was already looking forward to catching up and experiencing tourism, particularly in the Philippines, on a more personal level. “A hundred sixty-two days from now I will step down as president. Once again I will be free to be a tourist. This means that when I visit our country’s famous beaches, I will be able to stay for more than an hour and actually get to walk on the sand of these beaches, as opposed to delivering a speech a few hundred feet away from the shore,” Aquino quipped. The President said that this also meant the chance to travel to any of the countries in the ASEAN [...]