Raissa Robles: Two and a half hours with Aquino that were five years in the making

After my interview with Philippine President Benigno Aquino finally concluded last Thursday, Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario came up to me and said: “I have to shake your hand. You broke the record. That’s two hours and a half.”

All I could say was: “Really?”

Because to me, the record wasn’t that impressive, considering that I’d been nagging Aquino for an interview since 2010.

The only other time I had interviewed him face to face was in 2010 when he was a senator running for the presidency. The late local governments secretary Jesse Robredo had sneaked Jiji Press’ Dana Batnag and I into a Liberal Party meeting Aquino was to attend one evening.

We managed to get 30 minutes of his time before party colleagues shooed us away. As Batnag and I drove off, I looked back and saw Aquino emerge from the doorway and sneak a cigarette in the darkness, as he gazed off into the distance. Is this the next president, I wondered.

As Aquino started inching up in the polls, I repeatedly sought a sit-down interview with him through his chief aide. She always told me the same thing – she would try, but Aquino was just too busy.