WASHINGTON (VIA PLDT)? Hasn?t Sen. Lito Lapid heard of the wonders of Photoshop?
That was the reaction of one Twitter user Thursday after the Philippine Daily Inquirer twittered the news that the senator from Pampanga was itching to be included in a select group of Filipino officials, led by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who were to meet US President Barack Obama at the White House on Thursday.
Lapid, who parlayed his action star appeal into a seat in the Senate, had personally asked Ms Arroyo to take him along for the meeting with Obama at the Oval Office.
Lapid admitted he would do anything to have a photograph with the most powerful man in the world.
?I hope I?d be lucky enough to be chosen among the five that would be allowed to accompany the President when she meets Obama,? Lapid said in Filipino during a talk with reporters before the FilUSA dinner for Ms Arroyo at the Willard Hotel.
?This will be my first time ever to meet a US president in person because I might not have the chance anymore. So I asked the President herself to sign me up on this trip.?
No talk
Lapid, who is not exactly known for loquacity even in the Senate, said he was not planning on saying anything to Obama if he met him face to face.
?I will just listen because it is up to the President (Ms Arroyo) what they should talk about. I will just be there for support,? he said.
But Lapid might have to elbow his way, so to speak, into the Oval Office.
Based on previous announcements by Malacańang, the five slots for officials who would accompany Ms Arroyo at the meeting would be allotted to Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo, Philippine Ambassador to the United States Willy Gaa, and a representative each from the House (Speaker Prospero Nograles) and the Senate (Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, head of the Senate foreign relations committee).
?I like him (Obama) because he is young and he is the first black US President,? Lapid said.
?Kahit makunan lang ng litrato (Even just for a photograph),? he said.
?Waste of money?
Lapid also said the meeting with Obama would finally silence Ms Arroyo?s critics, who had mocked her for supposedly trying hard to secure a meeting with Obama.
?They said she was snubbed by Obama but now, she is really meeting with him,? Lapid said.
On hearing that Lapid wanted to meet Obama so they could be photographed together, a Twitter user said: ?Hasn?t he heard of Photoshop??
Photoshop is an image editing software that allows a user to manipulate or edit a picture to show him, for example, doing something he wants to do or be alongside a person he wants to be with.
Another Twitter said: ?What a waste of money and opportunity. There are thousand others who can greatly contribute to that talk!?
?And how do we justify that to our taxpayers??? twittered another.
But another Twitter user said: ?Love his candor.?
In the Washington interview, Lapid also confirmed that Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo, the President?s eldest son, had already given him the go-signal to run for governor of Pampanga in 2010. Lapid said he was going back to the provincial capitol because he could not afford another campaign for a Senate seat.
He said this should put to rest speculation that Ms Arroyo would run for the second district of Pampanga and that Mikey Arroyo, who currently holds that seat in House, would run for governor.
Lapid said Mikey Arroyo would go for a third term as congressman next year.
Go easy on foreign travels
Questioned at the weekly Kapihan sa Senado forum in Manila why Lapid was part of Ms Arroyo?s entourage, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said: ?Better just ask him about it.?
Zubiri, an administration ally, took a swipe at the congressmen who joined Ms Arroyo on her trip.
?Those who want to join the presidential trip are ?sipsip? (bootlickers) to the Speaker of the House of Representatives,? he said.
?It is the discretion of the Speaker who should go or who should stay. So the Speaker should practice prudence in this kind of trips because it doesn?t look good,? Zubiri said.
He also took a dig at Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chair Bayani Fernando for joining the trip.
?People getting angry?
?Maybe he wants to see the design of Washington D.C. if he can apply it in the Philippines,? Zubiri quipped.
Zubiri said he last went with Ms Arroyo during her 2007 state visit to Spain, where he witnessed the signing of agreements on three biofuel projects.
He said he turned down an invitation to join Ms Arroyo on her trip to Brazil ?because the people are getting angry over these trips.? With a report from Michael Lim Ubac
