Men’s magazine features president Aquino on cover

Aquino featured on the cover of the magazine.

Manila Times/Manila

The July issue of Esquire Philippines magazine features President Benigno Aquino on the cover.

It is the first time that the president has been featured in a magazine’s front page, according to an e-mail to Manila Times received yesterday from Summit Media’s media relations associate Jieneb Jamin Kho. The cover, shot in black and white, bears the headline “How To Be A Man by Benigno S Aquino,” which is the magazine’s theme for the month.

Esquire Philippines editor-in-chief Erwin Romulo said the magazine chose to feature the president to be the cover in the “How to be a Man” issue, saying, “Who can better teach every Filipino how to be a man than the most powerful person in the Philippines?” In the interview that accompanies the photo, the president talks about why he pushes for transformation, how he always remembers the bearer of false promises, the “perpetrators” he’ll be keenly watching and where he’ll kick back after his 2016 reign.

In an excerpt from the interview, Aquino said: “My critics will insist that (I decide important matters hastily). I’m tempted to challenge them to a debate. Why don’t you ask me how I made my decision and show me where my reasoning was faulty? So, if I have a critic, and he makes sense, then I will seek him out. I will try to get his positive point and incorporate it.”