<b>Ken Fuller</b> in the Philippines reports on the cost to the public purse and the country’s reputation of the President’s excesses
The Philippines President’s meeting with her counterpart in the United States on July 30 was supposed to lead to Washington’s seal of approval for her controversial term of office. However, largely due to the spending habits of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her large entourage, the aftermath has turned into a nightmare.
According to an item of gossip in the New York Post, a meal consumed by Arroyo and her party in that city’s Le Cirque restaurant cost a whopping $20,000. Presidential spokespersons have denied that public funds were involved and a Filipino congressman – one of the 65 people who joined Arroyo at the restaurant – has dutifully come forward to say that he picked up the tab.
This has done little to dampen the storm of criticism, with one opposition leader pointing out that the same sum could have provided 3,000 poor Filipino families with three square meals.
Previously, in 2004, Arroyo soured relations with George W Bush’s administration. At a time when she faced allegations of vote-rigging in that year’s presidential election, she bowed to popular pressure and withdrew the small Filipino contingent prematurely from Iraq in order to secure the release of a Filipino hostage.
Relations with Washington hit a further rough patch when a US serviceman, Corporal Daniel Smith, in the Philippines for joint exercises under a Visiting Forces Agreement, was convicted of raping a Filipina.
With the election of Barack Obama, the “special relationship” between the Philippines and its former coloniser has entered unknown territory. Many in the Philippines opposition claimed that Arroyo was among those the new American President had in his sights when he referred in his inaugural address to “those who cling to power through deception and deceit and the silencing of dissent”. This theory was strengthened by the perception that Obama was keeping her at arm’s length for weeks.
Her isolation ended in March when Obama called to reaffirm his commitment to the VFA at a time when there was a drive to have Smith, who was being held at the US Embassy pending his appeal, transferred to Filipino custody. The following month, Smith’s conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal and he was flown out of the country. In the meantime, the alleged victim had made a partial recantation of her testimony and had gone to reside permanently in the US having apparently been issued with an immigrant visa for which most applicants wait years.
The invitation to Arroyo to visit the White House did not meet with universal approval. The Asian Studies Centre of the Heritage Foundation, which had acted as a right-wing cheerleader for the Bush administration, warned Obama against saying anything Arroyo might interpret as support for any plan might have to extend her term beyond June 30 next year. As things stand constitutionally, that is when she must vacate the presidency.
Citing a long list of complaints against Arroyo, the Washington Times argued in an editorial that Obama had erred in making her the first Southeast Asian leader
invited to the White House. Admittedly, the Washington Times is owned by the Moonies and its editorial director has links with
Jose de Venecia junior, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines who was dumped by Arroyo and her allies.
Nevertheless, it was of considerable importance to Arroyo that the meeting with Obama and the visit as a whole went well. In fact, the meeting was largely ignored by the US media. Even in the Philippines, it was relegated to secondary importance by the death of former President Corazon Aquino. Whatever mileage Arroyo might have achieved has now been undermined by conspicuous consumption – a characteristic feature of her years in power.
And the controversy has now widened. Apparently, following her meeting with Obama, Arroyo and her large entourage went to Bobby Van’s Steakhouse in Washington. Here, according to the Washington Post, “the group took over one of the restaurant’s private rooms and dined on lobster, steak and fine wines”. On this occasion, the bill came to $15,000. While the Washington Times claimed this was paid by an unidentified woman who “opened a handbag stuffed with cash,” yet another congressman has insisted that he took care of the bill.
Meanwhile, with the presidential palace desperate to quell the controversy, new questions have arisen. It has been revealed that Arroyo and her husband stayed in a suite at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria hotel for $3,500 a night. Philippines congressmen and the rest of Arroyo’s entourage – 60 in all – had to make do with rooms costing a mere $950 a night.
Arroyo’s numerous foreign junkets always attract large numbers of legislators. According to one report, around 100 of them were falling over one another to volunteer for the Washington trip. This has invariably been defended in public with the insistence that such people pay their own way. However, that will be news to Congressman Bienvenido Abante. He says that he has no idea who paid for his flight and hotel expenses, but it certainly wasn’t him.
According to the Daily Tribune, the Philippines Consulate picked up the tab for the Le Cirque dinner for which the party had arrived in stretch limos hired for three days.
If all this were not enough, opposition congressmen have claimed that Arroyo has spent almost £34 million on foreign trips since 2001. That’s more than twice the amount budgeted for this purpose. They have called on the Commission on Audit to conduct a special investigation.
The Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism has published an investigation of Arroyo’s statements of assets, liabilities and net worth, showing that her wealth more than doubled to £1.8 million between 2001 and 2008. It is alleged that several assets have not been declared.
The President of the Philippines is paid an annual salary amounting to less than £10,000.
