PNoy parts with his Porsche

President Benigno Aquino III has decided to part with his Porsche, months after a survey showed that nearly half of Filipinos disapproved of his purchase of the luxury sports car. In an interview after attending the 113th founding anniversary of the Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, Aquino said he decided to sell his Porsche as it was putting at unnecessary risk the people guarding him, the Presidential Security Group. (Porsche is pronounced POR-sha) "Masyado nyo nang in-expose. Para bang it was an advertisement na ‘Oy, andito ako," Mr Aquino said. "It is time to let somebody else experience it." Asked how much he sold it for, the President replied that it was exactly for the same price he bought it. Aquino did not disclose the identity of the buyer. The President refused to answer other questions about the car, and urged reporters to ask questions of “more substance." "I hope that’s the last question on the car that’s no longer in my possession," he said. In March, the Social Weather Stations said that nearly half or 48 percent of about 1,200 respondents said Aquino's purchase of a Porsche sports car last year was not a good example for the chief executive of a country like the Philippines. [See: SWS: Most Pinoys not happy with PNoy's Porsche purchase] This was despite Aquino's claims that the car was not brand new and that he had used his own money to purchase it. [See: PNoy buys himself a Porsche] His critics have harped on the car purchase as a symbol of his presidency, with former Arroyo presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao entitling a scathing assessment he wrote of Aquino's first year in power "The Porsche Presidency." Aquino reportedly sold his blue BMW, which he bought when he was still a senator, for P4.5 million so he could purchase the white Porsche. — RSJ/KBK/HS, GMA News