PH: Is Aquino entitled to privacy?

H. Harry L. Roque Jr. reports:

President Benigno Aquino III complained that he would have a cold holiday season without a partner. He then asked—nay, begged—the public for privacy and to leave his love life alone. He has complained that the public’s obsession with his personal life was in turn ruining it for him. The question is thus asked: Is President Aquino entitled to privacy?

The answer is: Only if he becomes a European.

[…]

Aquino’s dilemma is that unlike Europe’s, American and Philippine jurisprudence do not distinguish between the public and private lives of public figures. In fact, the very definition of who is a public figure in the case of Ayer v. Capulong frowns upon making such a distinction…