COA urged to conduct special audit on Arroyo US trip

A lawmaker on Friday asked the Commission on Audit to find out how President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her delegation used government funds in their most recent trip to the United States. Amid public uproar over reported “lavish" dinners of the US delegation, Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño urged COA chair Reynaldo Villar to form a special team "to find out the whole truth" about the controversies surrounding Mrs. Arroyo's US visit. The New York Post had reported that Mrs. Arroyo and her entourage dined at the Le Cirque restaurant in New York, where the bill supposedly reached $20,000. While he did not confirm the amount, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said administration ally and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez footed the bill. Soon after the Le Cirque controversy broke out, the Washington Post reported that the President and her entourage dined at Bobby Van's Steakhouse in Washington DC hours after she met with US President Barack Obama. Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, another administration ally, said he footed the $15,000 bill as a treat for the President and her husband Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo's 41st wedding anniversary. "This Representation absolutely finds the said meal expenditures irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant or unconscionable even if the bills were footed by a private entity. Like most of our countrymen, I wonder, what other lavish expenses were made by the Philippine delegation?" Casiño asked in his letter. Casiño is also one of the authors of a resolution asking the House committee on good government to conduct an investigation about the New York dinner. In the resolution, Casiño, fellow Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, and Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza said the committee should look into whether Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees and Presidential Decree No. 46 — which makes it punishable for any public official to receive gifts on any occasion by reason of his or her official position — were violated when Mrs. Arroyo and her entourage dined at Le Cirque. The militant lawmakers and other critics of the government have slammed the presidential entourage's "lavish" dinners, saying they display the government's insensitivity to the plight of many poor Filipinos. - Johanna Camille Sisante, GMANews.TV