Mexican President Enrique Nieto arrives in PH for Apec, state visit

Mexican President Enrique Nieto has arrived on Tuesday in Manila for both the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit 2015 and state visit.

He arrived at the tarmac before 1 p.m. at the Villamor Airbase. He alighted from an airplane of the Mexican Airforce.

He was met at the tarmac by Vice President Jejomar Binay and Tourism Secretary Mon Jimenez.

Nieto smiled and waved to reporters as he passed by. When a photographer shouted to the Mexican president “Welcome to the Philippines,” Nieto replied: “Gracias (Thank you)!”

Nieto has won the hearts of netizens for his charismatic, movie-star looks.

READ: Mexico’s 43 missing students haunt president

However, his charms did not spare him from calls for resignation over the missing and probably dead 43 students, who were abducted amid widespread protest against corruption, impunity and a violent drug war.

The students protesters disappeared Sept. last year after they were attacked by the local police in the city of Iguala.

The police allegedly delivered the young men to the Guerreros Unidos drug gang, which has confessed to killing them and burning their bodies.

Furthermore, President Nieto was embroiled in a corruption scandal for a 2012 purchase of a multi-million dollar mansion from a company that had bagged several contracts from the State of Mexico while he was governor.

First Lady and actress Angelica Rivera was granted a loan to buy the mansion from a company, which also owns a company that was part of a Chinese consortium which won a contract for a high speed rail project. The government canceled the contract and reopened the project for bidding following the controversy.

READ: Kris Aquino welcomes charismatic President Enrique Nieto of Mexico

Nieto was elected in July 2012 amid massive protest against alleged vote buying. He has met presidential sister Kris Aquino in Nov. 2014 when he took a stopover in the Philippines on his way to Australia. RAM