Who is Grace Lee? Of course, she is not the daughter or sister of our friend DecoArts Boss James Lee or my comadre Helen Lee of Shanghai Restaurant. Some people only knew her as the new date (not girlfriend yet) of our most eligible bachelor President Noynoy Aquino. But there is more to that of the Korean beauty that caught the fancy eyes of the 51-year-old P-Noy.
She was born and raised in Seoul, South Korea and moved to the Philippines when she was 10 with her father who is based here.
The 29-year-old Koreana finished her high school at the St. Paul’s College in Pasig City where she had studied since Grade 3. She studied Interdisciplinary Studies, Communication Arts and Chinese Studies at the Ateneo de Manila University.
She first met the President while covering the inauguration of the Korean Electric Power Corp. power plant in Cebu City in June last year as GMA television host representative when she noticed by Aquino.
Lee admitted that she was dating President Aquino after the latter also publicly admitted earlier that he and the Korean are seeing each other.
Lee told ABS-CBN News: “I’m brewing something up, and surprise na lang. Love? Puwede rin.” She asked everyone to give them time and space to get to know each other more after meeting with talent manager Arnold Vegafria.
P-Noy will turn 52 on Wednesday while she is 29, an age gap of 23 which Lee acknowledged that “age gap and racial differences do not matter, at least what we have right now will serve as an inspiration to a lot of people out there.”
Whatever this latest relationship may lead, Lee said she is ready for the effects this will have on her life, as well as her family.
So, there you are readers, if tomorrow P-Noy has a new date other than the Korean, then don’t get surprised. Sometimes, I’m beginning to suspect that this is a good scapegoat of this administration to divert the attention of the public whenever there is failure on its part to meet the demand of the people. They made P-Noy’s lovelife an alternative to negative news.
-o0o-
Fixers at the Land Transportation Office (LTO) have expanded their operations not only to fix would-be-applicant’s application for new driver’s license or renewal but as they organized themselves as recruitment syndicate for alleged vacant positions in the agency.
The LTO in Region 12 warned residents regarding the operations of a recruitment group that reportedly offers fake job openings at the agency in exchange for hefty fees after agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Sarangani arrested an alleged member of the group following an entrapment operation in Alabel town.
Lawyer Ferdinand Balduman, executive officer of the NBI Sarangani District Office, said they nabbed suspect Mario Mahinay after he was caught in the act of receiving some P10,000 from an applicant for traffic enforcer at the LTO Alabel district office.
“They were asking P30,000 from the applicant, promising to fix his appointment as traffic enforcer allegedly with some LTO officials,” he said, adding five other alleged victims of Mahinay’s group have also sought their assistance.
Mahinay told reporters that he was indeed receiving applications for traffic enforcers but claimed that he was only asking P1,000 from the applicants as payment for the processing and delivery of their documents to the LTO regional office.
The P30,000 asking money by the syndicate from a single applicant for processing as reported by the LTO could be exaggerated. If I were an applicant why would I spend that much when I can spend much lesser than that amount. Suspect Mahinay’s claimed that he only received P1,000 is more believable.
Anyway, the difference in the amount involved will not hide the fact that fixers at the LTO are still in existing despite the chronic denial of agency officials.
