Noynoy, the new President--Charice sings the Anthem

At 12NN, June 30, 2010, the Philippines finally got a new President—Benigno Simeon C.Aquino III, nicknamed Noynoy. He is the son of Ninoy and Cory, the husband-and-wife icons of democracy of the Philippines. He won by a huge margin over his rivals in the May 2010 elections in

the country. With his oath-taking on that day at the historic Rizal Park in Manila, Aquino ended the nine-year reign of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who had become, in her last years of office, one of the most unpopular, if not THE most unpopular ever, presidents that the country has ever had. Her pummeling ratings on performance/populari

ty surveys reflected the people's lack of confidence in her as President amid many accusations of corruption against her Administration. Although Filipinos will not see the last of Arroyo because she will now sit in the country’s House of Repres

entatives as a Congresswoman (having run and won a seat in Congress also in the May elections which, undoubtedly, raised eyebrows everywhere), there is a least a collective sigh of relief that she is not the president anymore. (A side story to that is that her move to Congress is suspected of being just a ploy for her to escape corruption charges, and also for her to continue perpetuating herself in power by aiming for the top spot in the House as Speaker, and maybe even more.)

Anyway, the memorable inaugural of Noynoy and also new Vice President Jejomar Binay on June 30 was started by the awesome rendition of “Lupang Hinirang,” the Philippines’s national anthem, sung by Charice. Charice is a talented Filipino singer who has now become an international recording artist, after years of being locally based. What makes Charice’s singing of the Anthem even more memorable is that she sung it the way it should really be sung (as a march tempo). Previous renditions of the Anthem by equally Filipino singers in public events in the country and abroad have raised objections because of changed arrangements and over-acting singing styles that sought attention to the artist and not to the Anthem. The Anthem is a beautiful song whose lyrics seek to fire up every Filipino's love for the beloved country (lupang hinirang). Below is a YouTube clip (from ebsteebee channel) of Charice singing of the Philippines’s national anthem in Noynoy's inaugural.