Malacañan Palace
10 December 2013

The Philippine delegates of World Championship of Performance Arts (WCOPA) and Hail Mary the Queen Children’s Choir performed their winning pieces to President Benigno S. Aquino III in a courtesy call at the Heroes Hall in Malacañan Palace.

President Aquino said their songs uplifted his spirit after his visit to the Embassy of South Africa where he had expressed his condolences to his late idol South African President Nelson Mandela. He added that due to prior commitments in the upcoming ASEAN-JAPAN Commemorative Summit, he will not be able to attend the state funeral.

In his closing message, the President urged them to continue doing their country proud and not be affected by naysayers.

“You do your country proud. You proved again the maxim that the greatest resource of this country, apart from everything that God has blessed us with, really at the bottom line, is the people that we have,” he said.

The WCOPA is an annual competition for vocalist, dancers, actors and instrumentalists, models and variety acts, and is widely viewed as the Olympics of performance arts.

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