If he were to tell the story of his presidency through songs, President Aquino could put together a playlist that would include Freddie Aguilar’s teenage angst anthem, “Estudyante Blues” for his early years in Malacañang, and “Impossible Dream” to represent his administration’s accomplishments.

 

But it is the classic love song, “The More I See You,” that’s on his current playlist and encapsulates his feelings and beliefs, he said.

 

“I guess in a sense that (song) captures what I really believe,” the President said.

 

“It’s like the point of the song is that the more I get to interact with the people, my Bosses, the better I govern—from the feedback mechanism to the idea of getting recharged to face whatever the next challenge will be,” the President told the Inquirer Group’s top officials, editors and staff during Tuesday’s Meet the Inquirer Multimedia forum.

 

“Of course, for the beginning (of my presidency), it was “Estudyante Blues,” Aquino said of the song about being blamed for everything, a common plaint among teenagers.

 

Victory concert

 

Aquino sang the song at Quezon Memorial Circle on June 30, 2010, during a victory concert following his landslide win at the polls.

 

He also sang a few lines from the song during a nationally broadcast interview with comedian Vice Ganda in January this year.

 

Proud of his administration’s accomplishments, Aquino said “The Impossible Dream”—a popular song from the 1965 Broadway musical “Man of La Mancha”—could also be an appropriate tune to represent his time in office.

 

“I just don’t know how to segue to the song ‘The Impossible Dream,’ [for the dream] which became possible,” he said.

 

But the song that reflects how he feels about his job and the public would be Brazilian singer Eliane Elias’ bossa nova rendition of “The More I See You,” which was originally recorded in 1945.

 

Aquino found the song, which professes profound and intense love that grows deeper with time and proximity to the beloved, while looking for a track that could speak of his feelings about public service.

 

“I [was] trying to find a song that says ‘as long as you’re there, as long as I’m with you, your dreams and my dreams we can (both) achieve.’ And perhaps that’s why I stumbled upon that song,” he said.

 

He particularly remembers one line from the song: “The more I see you, the more I want you,” that continues with these lines: “Somehow this feeling just grows and grows / With every sight, I become more mad about you / More lost without you, and so it goes.”

 

Most challenging year

 

The President recalled how he faced the most challenging year of his presidency in 2013 when his administration had to respond to successive crises: the Zamboanga siege, the Central Visayas quake and Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan).

 

“Well, No. 1, there are always challenges. But 2013 was kind of eerie. We started with Zamboanga, went to Bohol, went to ‘Yolanda,’” he said.

 

After mounting back-to-back humanitarian operations to respond to the Zamboanga conflict and then the Visayas quake, “we were given a lesson on humility [with] Yolanda,” Aquino said.

 

With eight months left in his presidency, he said his administration was busy preparing its response to the severe El Niño phenomenon the country is expected to experience until the first half of next year.

 

The President said the government would continue to push as well for pending legislation, including the Bangsamoro Basic Law, the pension system for uniformed services and the rationalization of fiscal incentives, among the “24 to 25” of his priority bills.