GMA, Mike not likely to meet in New York— Palace

Working on a tight schedule, President Arroyo might not be able to have time with her husband, First Gentleman Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo, when she goes to New York next week to attend the United Nations World Summit and preside over the UN Security Council.

The First Gentleman has been on "self-exile" in San Francisco since July, when the jueteng controversy involving him, his son Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo and brother Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo hit the headlines.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Sonia Brady said the First Gentleman was not included in the President’s official delegation for her New York trip.

Brady also said there was no occasion when the First Gentleman’s name was mentioned during the preparation for the President’s schedule of activities in the US.

Earlier, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the only possible time for Mrs. Arroyo to meet her husband would be during a stopover in the West Coast, either in San Francisco or Los Angeles.

There is no direct flight between Manila and New York, which is located in America’s East Coast. The President and her delegation are taking a commercial flight, thus the stopover on the West Coast.

Ermita and Bunye said that despite the junking of the impeachment complaint against the President, they have not received word that the First Gentleman would return home soon. Their son, Mikey, who joined his father in the US with his wife and two daughters, returned home recently for his younger brother’s birthday.

"It is for the (First) Family to respond. That is the personal call of the First Gentleman and Congressman Arroyo and also depends on the assessment of the President. Their act of leaving was voluntary," Ermita said.

He also could not say whether Mr. Arroyo would return home in case the Senate resumes its investigation of the jueteng controversy.

Some senators said the sudden termination of the impeachment case against the President did not resolve the issues against the President and her family on the matter of jueteng and this is why there is a need to resume the Senate inquiry. — Aurea Calica