FILIPINOS are divided on the issue regarding President Aquino's purchase of a third-hand Porsche sports car (or as a car magazine describes as "supercar")  worth P4.5 million.

Take note, third-hand car for P4.5M? Isn't it grand?

Some say there's nothing wrong with P-Noy buying it especially with his own money while others say the action leaves a bad taste in the mouth at this time when more than 4.5 million Filipinos are starving.  

Even with his own money, many people say P-Noy should not have brought that car, yes, even with his own money at this time millions of Filipinos are wallowing in poverty. 

More importantly, they are claiming this would send a wrong signal/impression to Filipinos who are looking up to him to lead by example.

An online poll indicated that almost 30 percent of Filipinos believe that P-Noy's newest toy for a big boy should not even be raised and used as an issue against him.  

Majority of them say P-Noy still has a right to privacy and his personal transactions should be left alone.

But I doubt. Designers of that online poll could be the handiwork of P-Noy's apologists, created mainly to soften the impact of that Porsche super buy.

Would you think, the PSG would allow him to drive that Porsche in Metro Manila or to P-Noy's residence in Tarlac, Tarlac? Think of it. 

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More or less 20 percent favored P-Noy's move, saying the Porsche is not even brand new and he bought it with his own money unlike other corrupt officials.

But 21 percent contradicted P-Noy, saying as the president, what he did was in bad taste, especially after his memorandum on luxury cars a month ago.

Almost 18 percent questioned the President, stresssing that how can he buy a Porsche when his countrymen are drowning in proverty? He should put the country first no matter what the situation.

The remaining individuals who joined the survey said they don’t care because Malacanang has bigger problems to deal with.

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But for the record, 1st-APLUMA do not and cannot subscribe to P-Noy's move. To put it straight, it was a wrong move in chess parlance especially at this point in time where millions of Filipinos are experiencing hunger according to the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

Malacanang cannot use the excuse or reason P-Noy only used his own money to buy the sports car, if at all. Malamang may padrino rin yan. 

The bottomline is, the purchase is inappropriate when millions of us Filipinos are wallowing in poverty!

The nationwide survey conducted last Nov. 27-30 by SWS-BusinessWorld showed that of the 1,200 respondents, 18.1 percent or an estimated 3.4 million households claimed they experienced hunger at least once in the last three months.

The measure of hunger refers to involuntary suffering because the respondents answer a survey question that specifies hunger due to lack of anything to eat.

Survey questions about household hunger are directed to the household head, using the phrase “experienced hunger, and did not have anything to eat (nakaranas ng gutom at wala kayong makain).”

SWS noted that the latest figure is higher by 400,000 families from the all-time low 3 million households (15.9 percent) last September, 2010.

React to 1st-APLUMA via esns03@yahoo.com.