Media made such a big critical play over Gloria Arroyo’s Le Cirque dinner with a large group of congressmen who had accompanied her in her “working visit” to the United States then, over a $20,000 dinner.
Truth is, for such a large crowd, a Le Cirque tab for $20,000 is not much, but the media then thought so, and criticized, along with the then opposition, especially Noynoy, the opulent lifestyle of the former President.
But with Noynoy now president and in the US and the United Kingdom, with a budget — for him alolne — of $2 million for this Europe-US trip, along with a large delegation, whose travel budget also in the millions, will come from their own departments. The same yellow media have not been highlighting Noynoy’s ostentatious lifestyle at all. Protecting Noynoy again and hiding his ostentatious lifestyle?
That amount of per diem hitting P2 million is his and his alone, as those accompanying him — Cabinet secretaries and their staff, have to shell out the trip budget amounts from their departmental budgets.
Big change that. In his first trip to the US as president, Noynoy and his handlers wanted to portray him as a president who was frugal and saving the Filipino taxpayers’ money on his trips, what with photo-ops of his having merely hotdogs on a New York City corner for lunch and dinner.
And to recall, all that hypocrisy was staged, to create the different type of trip and food style he had, compared to Gloria’s $20,000 dinner at Le Cirque and a Bobby Van’s steak lunch.
But all this has changed, what with Noynoy now revealing his true ostentatious self.
Noynoy has even done one better than Gloria. The $20,000 dinner tab at Le Cirque is certainly peanuts compared to Noynoy’s $75,000 per plate dinner at the Mandarin Oriental, plus a $250 tab for each Fil-Am to just be there and have a photo with Noynoy.
So why aren’t the yellow media scoring Noynoy for an even more ostentatious lifestyle at a time when more Filipinos are going hungry and getting poorer? Even more telling is the fact that some of these Filipinos are shelling out $250 through arm-twisting methods by the Philippine ambassador to the US, Jose Cuisia, when the money could have gone to their relatives back home.
And just what would those who shelled out $75,000 each get in return? After all, as it is always said, there’s no such thing as a free lunch — or dinner. That amount is a lot of money even from businessmen.
So what is that ostentatious dinner with Noynoy all about? To raise funds for a Philippine-American friendship society that has a nebulous program?
Everywhere in the world, there are Philippine and foreign countries friendship societies, whether in Europe, Asia or the US, but there has been no such ostentatious fund-raising dinners with any Philippine president — until of course Noynoy came along, with all his hypocritical claims of being tight with the budget and savings, along with other hypocritical claims of his government being honest and transparent.
Where would that money go? The answers certainly aren’t forthcoming from Noynoy and his aides, nor, for that matter, would the answer come from Cuisia or even that newly formed society. Is it for lobbying purposes?
But the Philippine government pays US-based lobbyists to do the job for it. The administration even pays a lot of dollars for PR to US firms, just to get some publicity on the Philippine President, including media interviews.
Is it yet another fund-raising move for an LP election? Good grief! Isn’t the fund-raising in Customs as well as the conditional cash transfer funds still not enough for the greedy and perpetual power- hungry LPs?
Any which way it is cut, even Noynoy’s $2 million budget for his trip alone is a bit much, considering the fact that he is only there for a few days, not to mention that generally, some “generous” businessmen usually pick up the president’s hotel and meal tabs while a president is on a trip.
And any which way it is cut, the fact is that the ostentatious Noynoy fund-raising is scandalous.
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