US should improve intelligence—Aquino

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine President Benigno Aquino III on Monday said the United States needs to get better sources of information after a leaked US secret cable described him as “diffident and unassertive”.

Aquino said the unflattering description, published by anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, would not affect the country’s relations with the US, a close ally, but remarked that the US should improve its intelligence.

In the cable, dated January 22, 2010, then US ambassador Kristie Kenney described Aquino — a senator at the time — as “a diffident, unassertive man” carrying on his family’s political tradition in his quest to become president.

“Maybe they should assess their capabilities to assess and gather the necessary information so they will get the right information on which to base their decisions,” Aquino told reporters.

He also questioned whether US diplomats in the Philippines were getting the best and most complete information on which to base their reports.

Last week, the Philippine foreign minister branded Kenney as “a dismal failure” after WikiLeaks published a cable from 2009 criticising Aquino’s mother, the late president Corazon Aquino.

The death of Corazon Aquino, who is widely revered in the Philippines for helping restore democracy in the 1980s, helped propel her son to a landslide victory in the May 2010 presidential elections.

The cables suggested Kenney, who ended her Philippine posting last year, remained unimpressed to the end.

The US embassy in Manila declined to comment on the WikiLeaks cables.