Over 40 congressmen joining GMA in Peru

More than 40 members of the House of Representatives want to join President Arroyo’s trip to Peru this weekend despite the fact that Congress is in session.

As of last week, 42 congressmen and congresswomen had applied for travel authority with the House leadership to tag along with Mrs. Arroyo.

The President will attend the Asia-Pacific Cooperation leaders’ summit in Lima, Peru.

She invited several House members to join her entourage during the 61st birthday celebration of Speaker Prospero Nograles in Davao City.

“She could not discriminate, so she extended the invitation to all those she met in the Speaker’s birthday party,” one congressman has told The STAR.

He said his colleagues were elated by the invitation. “They want to go to Peru and perhaps visit Machu Picchu,” he said, referring to Peru’s top tourist destination and one of the newest world’s cultural heritage sites.

Two groups of lawmakers have become Mrs. Arroyo’s favorite companions in her foreign trips – the men’s and the ladies’.

The men’s team is led by presidential lawmaker-sons Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo of Pampanga and Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo of Camarines Sur.

Included in this group are Representatives Martin Romualdez of Leyte, Aurelio Gonzales Jr. of Pampanga, Danilo Suarez of Quezon, and several members of Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi).

Romualdez and Gonzales have just returned from the United States, where they accompanied Mrs. Arroyo in her United Nations speaking engagement.

They are among the most-traveled neophyte congressmen. They have joined the President’s entourage to the US and Europe at least six times in the 17 months that they have been in office.

In contrast, Nograles has been part of Mrs. Arroyo’s entourage only once.

The second group is led by Deputy Speaker Amelita Villarosa. Its members include Representatives Lorna Silverio and Reylina Nicolas of Bulacan, Mitos Magsaysay of Zambales, and Trinidad Apostol of Leyte.

Villarosa and Silverio were among House members who were with Mrs. Arroyo in her China trip three weeks ago.

Villarosa is the Kampi official who claimed that the millions distributed among congressmen in October last year in Malacañang came from Kampi.

More than 150 House members went home carrying a gift bag stuffed with P500,000 after the Palace meeting with Mrs. Arroyo. Villarosa claimed that the money came from Kampi in November, one month after the funds were distributed.

She is the wife of former congressman Jose Villarosa, whose lower-court conviction of the murders of two sons of their political opponent has been reversed by the Supreme Court.

At one time, more than 60 House members accompanied Mrs. Arroyo in one of her visits to the US.

Voice of the downtrodden

Meanwhile, deputy presidential spokesperson Anthony Golez said Mrs. Arroyo will take the cudgels for developing and “downtrodden” countries in the Asia-Pacific region hit by the global economic crisis when she attends the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ meeting in Lima, Peru this week.

Golez said the President has come to “symbolize emerging economies” in international forums, and her pro-poor programs that the government implemented long before the world-wide economic crunch are now being duplicated in other countries.

He said he expects the global economic crisis to weigh heavily in the discussions of world leaders in Peru.

She is very popular with fellow leaders of emerging and developing countries who consider her an “advocate” in getting wealthy nations to include poor countries in a common international agenda to weather the fallout of the global financial crisis, Golez said.

Only last month at the Asia-Europe Economic Meeting (ASEM) in Beijing, the President called on the “ASEAN+3” countries to consider allocating a bigger chunk of the $80-billion Chang Mai Initiative (CMI) as a quick-disbursing fund for members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) whose economies may suffer from the US recession, he said.

Mrs. Arroyo’s initiative, which she wants to be dubbed Chang Mai Initiative II, will be discussed by leaders of the ASEAN and their dialogue partners —Japan, South Korea and China —during the 2008 ASEAN leaders’ meeting in Chang Mai, Thailand next month.

He said economic managers expect the country’s economy to be “strong until 2009” while other countries are experiencing no growth. – Paolo Romero