New York dinner, Pinoy hunger

CDN Editorial

Two out of five Filipinos consider themselves as “food poor.”

This was according to the latest Social Weather Station (SWS) survey which showed that about nine million Filipinos classified themselves as poor.

While many Filipinos cringe in hunger, the country’s chief executive and her entourage managed to splurge on an expensive dinner at an exclusive restaurant in New York during last week’s official visit.

A New York Post report said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her party spent $20,000 or close to P1 million on food and wine at Le Cirque, a favorite hangout of famous personalities like broadcaster Barbara Walters, director Woody Allen and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Richard Johnson hit it right on the nail when he wrote in the Page Six “Eat and Drink” section of the NY Post online edition that “The economic downturn hasn’t persuaded everyone to pinch pennies.”

At a time when many of Filipinos can barely afford a decent meal at a cheapest fastfood, Arroyo gorged on caviar, lobster salad, wild burgundy escargot, soft shell crab tempura, black cod, halibut, over sole, saddle of lamb, prime dry-aged strip steak and Krug champagne, which cost $510 a bottle.

They spent P1 million on dinner when the Arroyo administration was spending only P6 per Filipino per day on education and P1 on health, according to the data released by Ibon Foundation.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde explained that the bill was paid by Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez who hosted the Aug. 2 dinner for Arroyo and her husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo. He said they didn’t know how much was paid.

But Malacañang has a lot of explaining to do and cannot just downplay the fact that the bill was paid by a political ally.

It has to show proof that no public funds were spent on the lavish dinner. If indeed the dinner was paid by Romualdez, they must prove that the money came from his own pocket and not from his pork barrel.

Still, an expensive dinner was highly inappropriate considering that the country was in the middle of a financial crisis and that about 10 million Filipinos were either underemployed or unemployed

It is not proper for the first couple and their entourage to spend P1 million in one night when based on the November 2008 study of Gallup’s World Food Day survey, 40 percent of Filipinos reported having experienced hunger “often or sometimes” in the last 12 months.

When they sipped the expensive wine and took a bite on the steak, did they even think about Juan dela Cruz who had to settle on watered down rice and a piece of dried fish for dinner? Or did they remember the children in poverty-stricken provinces in Mindanao who had not set foot on Jollibee?

(Comment: Pag lider ka (o kaalyado ng presidente) na HINDI SENSITIVE sa pangangailangan o paghihirap ng mga tao, ganito ang nagiging resulta ng pagdedesisyon. Para bang impulse decision dahil inabot ng gutom basta na lang gagawa ng ganitong hakbang --- irregardless kung ano ang situwasyon ng gutom sa ating bansa. Pag ako ang presidente hindi at malayong mangyari ito. Sa totoo lang kasi often laging ganito ang ginagawa ng marami nating opisyales sa bansa pag nasa labas ng bayan. Business with pleasure lagi. Kaso mas maraming pleasure ang kanilang inaatupag na para bang nasa bakasyon grande sila. Kaya yun lavish spending. Romualdez ba kamo ang nagbayad ng dinner bill? Hmmm.. again we know why).