Lawmakers on US trip told to help shoulder expenses

(Updated 5:22 p.m.) Congressmen who accompanied President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in her most recent visit to the United States would have to shoulder their own expenses if the House is asked to pay for its part in the trip, House Speaker Prospero Nograles said Monday. In a press conference, Nograles said the amount that might be shouldered by the 28 lawmakers who joined Mrs. Arroyo in her trips to Washington DC and New York would depend on how much the US government and Malacaňang shouldered. Nograles said the host country usually shoulders the expenses of visiting dignitaries. However, he said he is uncertain whether the lawmakers who accompanied Mrs. Arroyo to the US would have to pay for the expenses they incurred during the trip as the House has not received a statement of account from Malacaňang. "Pagdating nun (billing) I will call those who went went with us and say, 'para matigil na ito bayaran na lang natin ng personal' (When the billing comes, I will call those who went with us and say, 'let's pay for this on our own so the controversy will end)'," he said, adding he does not know who paid for the expenses in advance. Even though he was coy at the start of the press conference on whether the congressmen's contributions will come from their P1-million annual travel allowance, Nograles said at the end that the lawmakers' payment should come from their own pockets. He said he had already told the congressmen who requested travel authority that while they could go with the President in her meeting with US President Barack Obama, they should be prepared to pay for their own expenses. "Ang sabi ko if we go to America with the President, ang dami-dami natin, we should go on our own (I said that if we go to America with the President, we're so many, we should go on our own)," he said. If the House is asked to pay for congressmen's expenses during the US trip, that would be the first time under his watch, Nograles said. Willing to pay Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, who was also with the House delegation, affirmed that they have been advised by the House leadership that they would be paying for their expenses. "Yan ang ating nakuhang advice, that we will be paying for our travels," he told GMANews.TV over the phone. "I'm willing to share because the trip naman is an official working visit." Abante, who had earlier said the presidential entourage stayed at the Willard InterContinental hotel in Washington DC and at the famed Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York, estimated the billing of each congressman at P300,000 each "considering the airfare and hotel accommodations." "The House will be informing us later the real figure," he said, adding that congressmen's payment for the trip would "probably" come from their official travel allowances. When asked to confirm whether the trip's costs would be deducted from lawmakers' official travel allowances, Nograles said: "Everything depends on the statement of account we will receive later. What is included will be reimbursed." "The House will be informing us later the real figure," he said. 'Most ridiculous scheme' Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiňo said the "fly now, pay later" scheme was "the most ridiculous thing [he has] ever heard." Casiňo, who said he has been on two official trips abroad, said that details over who would shoulder the costs should have been smoothened out before the trip was taken. "The more na nagpapaliwanag sila dito, the more na nagmumukha silang sinungaling (The more they try to explain, the more they look like liars)," the militant lawmaker said in a press conference Monday. President Arroyo's visit to the US became controversial after US publications The New York Post and The Washington Post revealed that she and her entourage had "lavish" dinners at Le Cirque restaurant in New York and at Bobby Van's Steakhouse in Washington DC. The New York dinner, supposedly shouldered by Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, was reported to have cost $20,000. A Le Cirque executive, however, has denied the report published on the New York Post's Page Six gossip column. Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez, an administration stalwart who was also among the House delegation, said he paid for the Washington dinner which amounted to $15,000. The controversial dinners have prompted several lawmakers to seek investigations of Mrs. Arroyo's US trip from the Office of the Ombudsman, the Commission on Audit, and the House itself. - GMANews.TV