Aquino to proceed to South Korea after checking on Bohol, Cebu

President Benigno Aquino III says his trip to South Korea will push through and blames his predecessor Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for his dip in ratings in response to questions from the media during his visit to the NDRRMC office in Camp Aguinaldo where he was briefed by disaster agencies on the rescue and relief operations for victims of the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Bohol, Cebu and other parts of Visayas and Mindanao earlier on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2013. Video by INQUIRER.net’s Matikas Santos

MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III will push through with his state visit to South Korea after he has checked on the situation in Bohol and Cebu that were hit by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake Tuesday.

“We have to push through with it because the visit has been negotiated for a long time and we have many agreements with Korea and it is also one of our largest investors,” Aquino told reporters in an ambush interview in the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) Tuesday.

President Benigno Aquino III. AFP FILE PHOTO

“I will be going to Bohol and Cebu tomorrow and if possible other areas and if the assessment is that there are a lot of things that are not being taken cared of then we will reconsider the visit,” he said.

At least 32 have been reported killed from the quake that hit Bohol Tuesday morning which was likened by the head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) Renato Solidum as like “32 atomic bombs”

Aquino is set to visit South Korea upon the invitation of President Park Geun-hye on October 17 to 18.

He said that President Park informed him that this was the first visit of the Philippine president to Korea.

“This meeting has already been set and if we will suddenly cancel it, it might delay our good cooperation with Korea,” he said.
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