Imelda could join Aquino in UN Summit on MDGs

Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos, whose extravagant lifestyle during her time as First Lady gave birth to the term "Imeldific," might become a part of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III's delegation in a United Nations summit on poverty alleviation. Marcos, the widow of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, is the chairperson of the House committee on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs are eight targets that 189 member-countries of the United Nations pledged to achieve by 2015. The MDGs will be the primary topic in the upcoming United Nations summit in New York on September 20 to 22 which President Aquino is set to attend. In an interview after a forum on MDGs in Makati City that Aquino attended, Mrs. Marcos said the previous chairpersons of the committee attended UN gatherings on the MDGs. "I'm supposed to [go] because all previous chairpersons of the Millennium Development Goals [committee] have been going there," she said. However, she said her attendance will still depend on the approval of Congress leaders. "If I am asked to I have to, but I have to check first about what is the desire of the leaders of Congress and members of Congress," she said. "I'm just a member of Congress, I'm just following orders." Asked to comment on the possible criticisms that will be thrown her way if she joins the UN summit, the former First Lady said: "I am used to this. I have been persecuted and ridiculed for my commitment to the good, true, and beautiful." Mrs. Marcos was known for her extravagant lifestyle--including having thousands of shoes--during the 20-year rule of her husband. Mr. Marcos was the political nemesis of President Aquino's father, martyred senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. Recent relations between the Aquinos and Marcoses, however, have been civil, and when former president Corazon Aquino passed away last year, two Marcos children attended her wake. The two Marcos children who paid their respects to the late President were Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., now a senator, and Imee, the incumbent governor of Ilocos Norte. She pointed out that the Philippines is receiving this year the Millennium Challenge Corporation's $434-million grant for various development projects in the Philippines. Decision left to executive branch House Speaker Feliciano "Sonny" Belmonte Jr. said Mrs. Marcos' possible participation in the UN summit will depend on the executive branch. "The government is the one that is invited which is the executive branch. We the members of Congress play a supportive role," Belmonte said in an ambush interview after the same event. "She can be a member of a delegation," said Belmonte. "It's up to the executive branch whom they want to [include]." Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said earlier in the day that Malacanang is still finalizing plans for President Aquino's US trip. –VVP, GMANews.TV