MANILA – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has been denounced for attending a “lavish†dinner, together with her entourage, in an upscale restaurant in New York that cost them one million pesos or the equivalent of $20,000.
The latest furor arose while the President was in a working visit to the US to seek, among others, increased financial assistance from Washington as well as more investments from American businessmen to help the Philippines cope with the crippling impact of the worsening global economic slowdown.
It also came at a time while the whole nation was mourning the death of democracy icon, former president Corazon Aquino, who died on August 1 after battling colon cancer for more than one year.
The lavish dinner for President Arroyo, husband lawyer Jose Miguel Arroyo and the more than 40 lawmakers and their spouses took place at the upscale French restaurant Le Cirque in New York, described as a favorite hangout of such prominent personalities as former US State secretary Henry Kissinger, Paloma Picasso, Woody Allen, Bill Cosby and TV journalist Barbara Walters.
The party occurred a few hours before the President and her entourage left New York for Manila reportedly to pay their last respects to Mrs. Aquino, more fondly known to Filipinos as “Tita (Auntie) Cory†while she lay in state at the centuries-old Roman Catholic cathedral in Manila.
The furor arose from an online report of an item on page 6 of the tabloid “New York Post,†dated August 7 which said:
“The economic downturn hasn’t persuaded everyone to pinch pennies. Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was a Le Cirque the other night with a large entourage enjoying the good life. Even though the former comptroller of her country’s armed services, Carlos Garcia, was found guilty earlier this year of perjury and his two sons were arrested in the US on bulk cash smuggling, Macapagal-Arroyo ordered several bottles of very expensive wine, pushing the dinner tab up to $20,000.
A copy of the President’s tab, which has been posted in several blogs, showed her ordering 11 bottles of Krug champagne priced at $510 per bottle. The entourage also feasted on Osetra caviar ($1,400 for five ounces), a ‘Chef’s Tasting Menu†or wine paired with a dish ($4,500 for 25 orders) and a “three-course Chef’s Seasonal Menu†($1,450 for 25 orders).
Opposition leader Mayor Jejomar Binay of suburban Makati City, Metro Manila said the amount spent is enough to provide three square meals to 2,956 families living on the poverty threshold.
Binay said: “What they did was deplorable, especially if taxpayers’ money was spent. If they spent private money, what they did was in bad taste and again showed insensitivity to the millions of Filipinos who face hunger daily.â€
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde, who was with the Arroyo entourage, confirmed on Sunday the President attended the dinner but claimed the tab was picked up by Congressman Martin Romualdez of Leyte province in the Visayas.
Romualdez, described as one of the favorite travelling companions of the President in her foreign trips, is the son of former Leyte governor Benjamin Romualdez, brother of former first lady Imelda Romualdez-Marcos.
The Marcoses and the Romualdezes have been alleged to have stolen from the government coffers about $10 billion during the strongman rule of the late president Ferdinand Marcos.
In several interviews aired live on radio and TV on Sunday, Remonde insisted the dinner was a “gross exaggeration†by a gossip columnist of the “tabloid†New York Post, one of the largest circulation dailies in the US.
Despite the dinner tab, posted in several blogs which showed expensive orders like caviar and champagne from the President and her party, Remonde claimed the dinner served them was simple.
Remonde also pointed out the dinner was the latest in the atrocious claims by the opposition, Left-leaning groups and other sectors that are out to spread the “message of hate†against the Arroyo administration.
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[...] the order was issued as President Arroyo remains enmeshed in an escalating and often heated controversy regarding the “lavish†dinner tendered for her and her entourage at the classy and e… where they stopped over while on a working visit to the [...]