NEW YORK (via PLDT) -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will arrive in Manila just a few hours before former President Corazon Aquino is laid to rest at the Manila Memorial Park beside her husband, former Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr.

In a briefing at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the President, who cut her scheduled meetings in Chicago, San Francisco, and Guam, would take a chartered flight out of New York and after refueling at San Francisco, would fly non-stop to Manila.

Though she could have left as early as Sunday from New York, Arroyo has opted instead to leave on Monday either before or after lunch on a chartered flight that would take her back to the Palace by 3 a.m. Wednesday before Aquino?s burial set at 10 a.m.

Except for a Mass to be held at the Palace upon her arrival, it remained unclear whether Arroyo would attend the burial of Aquino.

"If the funeral is 10 (a.m.), the President and her party has time to visit the remains of the former President, ?? said Ermita.

Aquino?s former defense undersecretary is also unaware on whether the President had called any member of the family of Aquino to personally convey her condolences although her Palace executives have contacted the family and deferred to their wish to keep the interment as "simple as possible and to forgo the granting of state honors in Malacañang that would have meant a lying in state at the Palace.??

So far, Arroyo has been given two official honors to the former President: she signed Proclamation 1850 declaring a period of national mourning from August 1-10 with all Philippine flags flying at half mast; and Proclamation 1850 declaring August 5 a special non-working holiday.