Manila: A Korean television presenter and radio jockey has claimed that her relationship with Philippine President Benigno Aquino is headed for the altar, media reports said.
"The full length … the altar … I'm praying for this," Grace Lee was quoted by the online news site Vera Files as saying in her radio programme. The report was published on Monday in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
The 29-year-old Korean said her aim is to make the 52-year-old bachelor head of state to stop smoking.
"I don't think we're playing around. We're both not at the age to be playing around," Lee said in a separate interview with TV5. "But the more I get to know him, the less I feel the age difference [between us]."
Lee said she and Aquino would talk "three to five hours".
Walking encyclopaedia
Describing Aquino, Lee said, "He's brilliant. He is the most intelligent man I've met in my life… [he's] … a walking encyclopaedia."
Lee also said that she and Aquino would talk three to five hours, but did not say whether they talk over the phone or during dates.
She also reportedly revealed that the president wanted her to be secured by presidential guards.
According to its website, Presidential Security Group, an elite joint police and military unit, is primarily tasked to provide round-the-clock protective security to the country's head of state and his immediate family members, the seat of government and other VIPs. The unit is also mandated to secure the country's vice-president, former presidents and vice-president and their immediate families.
The president's office however, refused to comment on Lee's alleged statements. "We do not comment on the President's private life," Undersecretary Abigail Valte said. She said however that the president's office is reviewing if the PSG can provide security to people outside the president's family.
Denial
Lee denied the Vera Files report via tweets in her microblogging account, Twitter, yesterday. She said the story was "very false n vile," and demanded that Vera Files "formally apologise to the public". Lee also dared Vera Files to identify its source regarding Aquino's alleged offer to give her security, adding, "This is not to be taken lightly".
Later in the day, Lee toned down her statement and tweeted: "Okay, enough…. can't let this affect me the whole day, it's affecting my positivity. Let's cook.. haven't eaten whole day."
In another statement, she said that she and Aquino would talk over the phone only for 30 minutes.
The two met at the plant inauguration of Korea Electric Power Corporation in Naga, Cebu in mid June 2011, the Inquirer quoted Lee's talent manager, Arnold Vegafria as saying. Lee served as interpreter during the state visit of Korean President Lee Myung-bak in November 2011.
