Mike to get ‘President’s time’ this Valentine’s Day

Despite the affairs of state, President Arroyo will make time for affairs of the heart today, Valentine’s Day.

The President said she will make sure she’ll spend some time with her husband Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo during their traditional Valentine’s date.

"My schedule for the evening is private time, President’s time. I have nothing for tomorrow night except a date with my husband," Mrs. Arroyo said yesterday.

She, however, admitted that she has no Valentine’s gift for her husband, who is a year older than her at 54.

"I haven’t thought of anything. Maybe nothing, except my personal presence," Mrs. Arroyo hastily added.

She has only the highest esteem for Mr. Arroyo, a lawyer by profession whom she has barred from entering into any transactions with her administration: literally "outside the kulambo" as far as running the affairs of government is concerned.

The President’s very first administrative order prohibits all government officials and employees from dealing or transacting "directly or indirectly" with "Attorney Arroyo and other members of the First Family and their relatives."

She cited her husband’s having sacrificed a lot for her since she first joined public service.

It as a good thing, she said, that Mr. Arroyo belongs to the so-called "old rich" in the country, the Tuasons who own vast tracts of land in Metro Manila which were inherited from their forefathers dating back to the 18th century.

And Mr. Arroyo’s standing behind her since she first took public office as undersecretary of the department of trade in 1988 was not lost on her.

"Because my husband has made many sacrifices in order to stay away from government," she said in a past interview.

Asked what was the last wifely duty she had done for her husband before she took office at Malacañang, she said without batting an eyelash: "I kissed my husband."

She admitted having no more time to perform such wifely duties with the much bigger problems of the country she has to attend to now.

"I hope he understands," she said, adding that she has always advised him that "governance is not business."

For career women like her who have positions higher than their spouses, the First Working Wife said: "In private life at the home at least compensate by letting the husband be the head."

The Arroyos, who will be married 33 years this August, have three children: Juan Miguel, Luli, and Diosdado III or "Dato, " named after her father, the late president, and ’70s jazz artist Eumir Deodato. – Marichu Villanueva