GMA eyes NY’s Giuliani as consultant on peace and order

New York (via PLDT) — From New York City mayor to Malacañang consultant.

President Arroyo disclosed plans yesterday to hire former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani as consultant of the Philippine government on peace and order.

Giuliani’s expertise in his administration of New York City, once a crime-ridden metropolis, would come in handy in the Philippines’ own peace and order campaign, the President’s advisers said.

Mrs. Arroyo revealed such plans to Filipino journalists after she met here with seven of the 13-member International Board of Advisers who were also attending the World Economic Forum.

The President said the Board highly recommended that she tap Guilliani, Time magazine’s Man of the Year for 2001 for his sterling performance in the wake of the terrorist suicide attacks on Sept. 11 that leveled a city landmark, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.

Before the attacks, Guilliani was highly acknowledged for succeeding in his anti-crime campaign that rid New York of its notorious image as a melting pot of heinous crimes, mugging incidents and assorted daylight felonies.

Mrs. Arroyo said she decided to convene the meeting of the elite board of her advisers when seven of them led by Maurice Greenberg, chairman of AIG (US), were here to attend the WEF at the posh Waldorf Hotel.

Also attending the WEF along with their fellow chief executive officers (CEOs) of major multinational companies around the world included, namely, Stephen Zuellig, chairman of Zuellig; Laura d’ Andrea-Tyson, dean of the London Business School; Andrea Jung, CEO of Avon Products; Marce Fuller, CEO of Mirant Engineering; Stephen Bosworth, dean of the Fletcher School and former US ambassador to RP; and M. Makihara, chairman of Mitsubishi Corp.

The President had a "business" meeting with the board at a dinner hosted by Greenberg in her suite at the St. Regis Hotel.

"And so we discussed everything like peace and order and a very good suggestion came up: ‘Get Guilliani as consultant on peace and order. He just retired’," Mrs. Arroyo said.

Asked if the Philippine government will pay for the former mayor’s services, she replied: "Probably we will have to pay him but it will be worth it!"

Guilliani’s term as mayor ended at the end of last year; he was succeeded by media mogul Michael Bloomberg, whom he had endorsed while the city was undergoing massive rehabilitation from the Sept. 11 attacks. — Marichu Villanueva