Imelda excluded in RP delegation to UN summit — Palace exec

She may be the chairperson of the House committee on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but former First Lady and incumbent Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos won't be joining President Benigno Aquino III when he goes to the United Nations summit on the MDGs late this month. When GMANews.TV asked Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning head Ricky Carandang whether Marcos will be part of Aquino's delegation to the UN summit in New York on September 20-22, he answered, "No, she will not." "Like we said before, we want a lean delegation," Carandang said over the phone. Malacañang is still finalizing who will join Aquino in his first official foreign trip as Philippine president, but as of the moment Marcos is not included in the list, he said. Earlier in the day, Marcos said she would go to the UN summit if she is asked to go by Congress leaders. "I'm supposed to [go] because all previous chairpersons of the Millennium Development Goals [committee] have been going there," she said. "If I am asked, 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." House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said that while Marcos "can be a member of [the] delegation," it will be up to the executive branch to decide who would join Aquino in his trip. The MDGs are eight targets that 189 member-countries of the United Nations pledged to achieve by 2015. Among these are eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, and improving maternal health. Mrs. Marcos was known for her extravagant lifestyle—including having thousands of shoes—during the 20-year rule of her husband, the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos who 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 visited her wake. — RSJ/KBK, GMANews.TV