“I ask our people to spend on the basics first before the luxuries so our children will have enough to eat.”—Gloria Arroyo
DEAR Dr. Anthony Golez,
Allow me to congratulate you for placing your president’s behavior in the proper context and for putting her critics in their place. You said it so beautifully I must quote your statement in full.
“The issue at hand cannot be the sincerity of this President’s commitment to uplifting our poor. Whatever monies may have been spent for the appropriately ceremonious conduct of her official trip abroad are but a tiny fraction of the billions of pesos she has committed, and will continue to commit, to the alleviation of hunger and the amelioration of poverty in our country.
“In their frenzy to score media points at the President’s expense, these critics will go so far as to demean and debase the office of the presidency itself, not just its current occupant.
“They would now have us believe that the leader of our nation is somehow not good enough to be hosted in the best hotels, or chauffeured around town, whenever he or she travels abroad as the representative of one of the 15 largest countries in the world.”
You’re absolutely correct; the issue is not about Mrs. Arroyo’s commitment to fighting poverty. It’s about what she’s entitled to as the head of a regime whose survival depends on exported labor and the largesse of rich countries.
Mrs. Arroyo must travel in chartered planes, ride in limousines, stay at the best hotels, and wine and dine at the finest restaurants because we don’t want anybody to think she’s not good enough.
She must always travel with a large entourage because we don’t want anybody to forget that the Philippines is one of the 15 most populous countries in the world.
Dr. Golez, your statement came at the right time. The trash talk about those dinners has gone out of control. Mrs. Arroyo’s critics connected those million-peso meals not only to hunger and poverty but also to the lack of proper equipment for the soldiers fighting bandits in Mindanao.
The latter connection is absurd. Everybody knows that passing on those dinners won’t help our soldiers. Filet mignon does not make good leather for combat boots and lobsters shells can’t be used as body armor.
That said, I would like your take on the comportment of Rep. Danilo Suarez, the host of the $15K dinner at Bobby Van’s Steakhouse in Washington, DC. The Washington Post thought he was a woman.
“…[A]t the conclusion of the meal, an unidentified woman opened a handbag stuffed with cash, counted out bills and paid the $15,000 tab.”
Do you think it was proper for Representative Suarez to dress in drag while he was still in Washington, DC? Shouldn’t he have waited until he got to the Bay Area in California before morphing into Danielle? Do you think he will clobber me with his purse if I continue asking questions?
Before I go, I hope you won’t mind some unsolicited advice.
Your statement, as beautiful as it is, was a bit too long for TV sound bites. Keep it short and sweet. Instead of that long-winded declaration, you could have simply said, “Mrs. Arroyo believes that the Filipino is worth dining for.” Trust me, it conveys the same message.
Hugs and kisses,
MB
Popularity: 1% [?]
From the lecture halls of UP-Diliman :
blackshama says:
July 17, 2009 at 2:41 pm
To be fair to Mrs Gloria Arroyo, her economic and development policies have indeed been largely for the better and that cannot be denied. Since she was prescribing economic medicine, the nation should have been rallied to austerity and with a steely focus on development.
GMA forgot that she also had to rally to austerity (maybe she got dazzled by the lights of Broadway).
This is the reason I called Gloria Arroyo, the master of deceit
and duplicity. She is the product of our corrupt political
system. Politicians who are patting you at the back. Their other
hand is pickpocketing you on your pocket.
as far as i know those dinners were not part of official business and were attended only by the president and members of her entourage. i don’t see how the cost of those dinners could be written off as expenses incurred in the pursuit of more investments for the country. were there american investors during those dinners?
perhaps what these malacanang officials want to say is that because pgma ‘works’ so hard to get billions of dollars in investment she is ‘entitled’ to enjoy a french meal or two or three or four…
again, another display of a misplaced sense of entitlement brought to us by our honorable leaders.
better-phil: when Accenture Philippines sends an employee to Singapore or Australia for business-meetings, the evening meal-expense is paid by Accenture (but not the pay-per-view TV show).
Many companies do authorize $200-per-head dinners (or much higher!) for some of its folks on business travel. One has to be held in high-regard, and by a company with an excellent revenue-stream, to get that signature-authority. Having signature-authority still means that the expense-report has to be submitted — with receipts — and that the numbers get audited.
i’m now wondering if there is any justification at all for lito lapid’s attendance in any of those dinners.
Seems to me govt officials think they can get away with anything. who dings the ones in charge? guess thats why the media is out there to point fingers when no one else will.
ANOTHER TIMELINE*
August 16, 2001
“As I seek to provide food for every table. I need you to help me to pray so that I can do what is right, do my best and let God take care of the rest, in providing the jobs, the schooling, the homes and the food on every table.”
November 30, 2001
“…make food available at the table of our most depressed brethren.”
January 28, 2002
“Everyone must appreciate that our obligation to our people in the Philippines is to put food on the table for the hungry today and not merely promise a better life tomorrow.”
February 21, 2004
GMA GETS ‘NOBEL’ FOR FOOD
July 23, 2004
“…our will and resolve to bring food to every table.”
September 12, 2007
“…the way to peace begins with providing a person a job, food on the table and human dignity.”
April 8, 2008
“Our near-term objective is to focus on putting food on the table for our people.”
July 07, 2008
“We are focusing on fighting for the average Filipino. Therefore, we are focused on putting food on the table.”
October 17, 2008
“Government is doing everything in its power to put food on the table…”
July 30, 2009
FOOD FOR EVERY TABLE? FAR FROM IT
August 2009
PAGKAIN SA BAWA’T MESA AY SA WAKAS NATUPAD…
Dangan nga lang sa Amerika naganap…at sa mga piling iilan lamang!
—–
*please contact Le Cerge to fill in the missing dates and speech excerpts
In NY it matters not what you eat but where you eat that separates you from mere mortals.
Location, location, location …..
http://www.slate.com/id/2224941/
The Half-Million-Dollar Wiener
How can New York City hot dog vendors afford a monthly rent of $53,558?
By Meredith Simons
Posted Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009, at 4:13 PM ET
A hot dog vendor was kicked from the curb outside New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art last week for failure to pay his monthly rent—of $53,558. Pasang Sherpa was under contract to pay the Parks Department $362,201 a year for a stand on the south side of the Met’s entrance and $280,500 for another on the north side. That’s a lot of hot dogs. With rent astronomically high, how much do New York City hot dog vendors actually make?
Choices are truth. It cannot be “spun” any way but factually. 30 people ate high while millions scruffed low that same day, looking for the next meal.
Joe
Watch Malacañang’s another explanation concerning the latest controversial presidential trip abroad.
http://www.nbni.tv
another feast on a dead carcass served by the chef from hell, manuel buencamino. why does FV keeps on using this putrid caricature of the president of the republic? when are you guys have your fill? o.k., you have convinced each other (and no one else) that the president is what you are accusing her of. have you no point of satiety?
The President had done inappropriate behavior. People are
hard up trying to figure out where the next meal will come.
She is there feasting in America with people who are not even
supposed to be there. Ordering expensive meals and wines.
Is this not gross insensitivity?
Haven’t you considered that the President was being sensitive when she chose a relatively exclusive venue to celebrate her wedding anniversary?
Have you looked at the possibility that the people were overstepping the bounds of privacy?
The President may be a public figure but it does not mean that she has no right to celebrate a personal milestone in her life in the manner she sees fit.
As long as she is not dipping into taxpayers money, I don’t have a problem with it.
Umilag na nga,
sinundan pa rin
- e kaya nga lumayo
dahil ayaw makita,
ang mga lintyak…
sila na ang namboso
sila pa ang may ganang magalit…
mga hinayupaks talaga
A POSTER GIRL FOR BAD BEHAVIOR. The poster should be reproduced
and posted in every municipal building in the country…
Where the leaders of the Free World grab a bite to eat:
Obama in Five Guys burgers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1TxMKaYHYA&feature=related
He picked up the tab and carried the greasy paper bag himself to feed his staff in appreciation for the hard work and long hours they’ve been putting to rescue the US economy.
Obama with Joe Biden grabs some burgers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcp7qwF_r_E&feature=fvw
Spot on baycas. How did you do that? It’s worth reflecting how vicious those ‘phrases’ were said, over and over again.
So, who is the spinmeister behind that ‘slogan’, however badly thought-out?
google “pgma speech food table” and one can get results…
It must be too hard if not entirely foolish to write a blog praising and patronizing of GMA but I guess, it just have to be tried to break the intellectual boredom that some of us at FV might have been suffering from.
Who can try for a change to break the monotony?
Read “GMA windfall from US visit may not be what it seems”
By Jose Katigbak STAR Washington bureau
(The Philippine Star) Updated August 21, 2009 12:00 AM
$6.2 billion. ahahahahahahahah whooooooieeeeee ahahaha snort cackle
Joe
Article heading in PDI Aug 13, 2009 reads:
‘Billions’ in investments vs dinner—Palace
?
However, Katigbak writes: