UP Ibalon Bicol: A $15,000 dinner tab in Washington DC adds more fire to GMA’s extravagance

A $15,000 dinner tab in Washington DC adds more fire to GMA’s extravagance

8/12/2009 | Posted by mesiamd | Edit Post

It’s really easy to spend money when someone gets cash for a song. No matter how much Malacanang Palace says that not a single centavo come from the Filipino, when When Pres. Gloria M. Arroyo travels on official trips abroad, the expenses fall on the shoulders of taxpayers. She and her entourage don’t have qualms in the amount to spend for they think they are giving the Filipinos a big favor. In foreign land, they think of themselves as public servants who represent the best interest of the country.

With the estimated P8 billion already spent by GMA in her trips, there are ways to hide unbridled abuse and extravagance. Having a patron like Rep. Martin Romualdez to pay for a $20,000 dinner in their pricey splurge in NY’s Le Cirque Restaurant is a good way to confuse and divert attention. Stupefied by the irrational display of pomp and self-indulgence, New York Post can’t resist commenting on the GMA’s controversial meal about the time she declared national mourning for Pres. Cory Aquino.

Now it’s the Washington’s Post turn to tell another story. According to Roxanne Roberts and Amy Argetsinger, writers of the influential newspaper in Capitol Hill, Pres. Arroyo and her delegation dined on "lobster, steak and fine wines" in Washington and spent $15,000 for the meal on July 30, 2009.

In the column “The Reliable Source” they said an "unidentified woman opened a handbag stuffed with cash" and paid for the tab plus the sizeable tips for Arroyo and its bloated entourage of 65 people at Bobby Van's Steakhouse on 15th Street.

Surely these spectacular dinners are just the tip of the ice-berg. Many agree they are scandalous and deplorable when a third of Filipinos are languishing in poverty. So what more is there to say of corruption and abuse in the Pearl of the Orient Seas? (Photo Credit: Oustgloria) =0=

RELATED BLOGS: New York City's dining lesson for GMA: Le Cirque versus Elvie’s Turo-Turo Posted by mesiamd at 8/11/2009; GMA’s NY dinner and the discordant ritzy lifestyle of Filipinos Posted by mesiamd at 8/10/2009

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Labels: budget, Corruption, Corruption in Government, dinner, extravagance, foreign travel, GMA, Totie Mesia, travel, Washington DC

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A $15,000 dinner tab in Washington DC adds more fire to GMA’s extravagance

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