Cheaper hotels, restos for US trip

MANILA, Philippines - No senator or House member will join President Aquino in his trip next week to the United States, where he and his lean entourage are expected to stay in inexpensive hotels and dine in modest restaurants.

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said “there will be nothing extravagant” in the President’s weeklong trip, which would cost only about P25 million, or just one-third the usual cost.

Dozens of lawmakers joined former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on her foreign trips.

Ochoa said the President would have a 60-man delegation, including businessmen who would be shouldering their own expenses. Only a brother-in-law and none of his sisters will join the trip.

With a lean entourage, the President has decided to take a commercial flight to San Francisco and then a chartered flight to New York, Ochoa said. Mr. Aquino is set to leave Manila either tomorrow or Monday for the UN General Assembly and the US-ASEAN meeting and is expected to be back on Sept. 28.

But Ochoa said the working visit would focus on attracting prospective investments through public-private partnerships. Ochoa said some of the business leaders that the President would meet were from Hewlett Packard and Citibank.

Instead of the pricey Waldorf Astoria hotel where the former president and her entourage stayed, Ochoa said President Aquino would be staying at Hotel Sofitel and would like to be served simple food like hotdog.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Mr. Aquino would also eat at Max’s Restaurant in San Francisco.

Ochoa said Mrs. Arroyo, now a Pampanga congresswoman, usually spent at least P50 million for a five-day foreign trip while another president whom he did not name spent P151 million for a 10-day visit.

“We are conscious of the fact that we are in a debt hole. We can only begin to climb out of it if we strictly implement austerity measures and cut down on unnecessary spending,” Ochoa said. “Cutting the expenses of this trip is one of many steps we’re taking to do that,” he said.

“The President is serious about cutting costs in this trip. He is taking a very lean delegation and flying commercial to the US and back, which is why this trip will cost much less than previous working trips,” Ochoa said.

“That is why, in the interest of transparency, we are releasing these figures so the Filipino people will know where their money is going and how it is being spent,” the Executive Secretary said.

The Finance Office of the Office of the President has released P22 million to cover the expenses in the entire trip, including hotel accommodations, and meals and transportation within the US. The amount does not include the costs of the plane tickets to be purchased for the trip, which are estimated at P3 million.

More than P76 million had been spent for a presidential working visit to New York and Washington from July 29 to Aug. 5, 2009 during the previous Arroyo administration. Plane tickets cost taxpayers P6.2 million.

Expenses for presidential working visits in 2009 were as follows: Switzerland, Italy, Bahrain and the US (Jan. 30 to Feb. 8), P156.9 million; Syria and Egypt (May 1 to 6), P50.7 million; Japan, Colombia, Brazil, Dubai and Hong Kong (June 17 to 28), P151.3 million; and Libya (Sept. 1 to 2), P35.6 million.