MANILA, Philippines—Under fire for expensive dinners in New York and Washington, D.C., President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has decided to forgo plans to purchase a new presidential jet to the tune of P1.2 billion.

“I’m formally announcing that the President has ordered the cancellation of the purchase of a presidential jet,” Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said at his weekly media forum aired on the government-run Radyo ng Bayan.

Remonde said the President “doesn’t want people to say that she was putting her needs ahead, although come to think of it, it’s her successor who would benefit from it.”

Malacañang abandoned the planned purchase only two days after it announced that the Office of the President had set aside P1.2 billion for a “factory-new,” twin-engine, pressurized aircraft for Ms Arroyo’s travels.

The Office of the President’s bids and awards committee came out with a newspaper advertisement containing such specifications.

The ad also noted that the aircraft should be equipped with instruments compliant with International Civil Aviation Organization and Federal Aviation Administration standards. It should also be fitted with auxiliary power unit and be in VIP-cabin configuration.

Second time

“This is the second time that the President has ordered [the purchase’s] cancellation even if this [buying a new aircraft] has long been recommended by the Presidential Airlift Wing several times,” Remonde said.

The Palace was apparently still reeling from the public backlash over Ms Arroyo’s dinners in the United States—first at the Bobby Van’s Steakhouse in Washington, D.C., and later at the Le Cirque French restaurant in Manhattan, New York.

The Washington feast reportedly cost $15,000 and the Le Cirque party, $20,000—equivalent to about P1.7 million.

Ms Arroyo came under intense criticism after the New York Post reported that she and her officials ran up a $20,000 tab (almost P1 million) for dinner at Le Cirque early this month.

The report triggered public condemnation and street protests in the country, where, according to official data, about one-third of its 90 million population lives on one dollar or less a day.

Church and opposition leaders slammed the President for the extravagance and insensitivity amid poverty in the country and the global economic crisis.

Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay earlier said the dinner for 25 people at Le Cirque could have fed almost 3,000 hungry families with three square meals.

Malacañang denied public funds had been spent on the dinner at the high-end restaurant.

Details of travel expenses

Remonde promised to make public details of Ms Arroyo’s expenses on her US trip, during which she finally met US President Barack Obama.

“[S]he has given information that this claim by those in the opposition that the President has spent this much for foreign trips is again grossly exaggerated,” he said.

Bukidnon Rep. Teofisto Guingona III had earlier said Ms Arroyo had racked up P2.78 billion in expenses on her 50 foreign trips from 2003 to 2008. The amount, he said, was more than double the P1.1-billion limit set by Congress.

Speaker Prospero Nograles Sunday said Guingona’s exaggerated estimates were based on “limited information.”

Nograles, who was part of the President’s entourage, said there was no Commission on Audit (COA) report on her foreign travel expenses from 2003 to 2008.

He said the COA itself was surprised by the opposition lawmaker’s charges. Guingona might have “blown out of proportion his extrapolations based on limited information” given by Assistant Audit Commissioner Carmela Perez in a presentation to House leaders, he said.

COA paper

Guingona based his claims on a COA paper titled “Issues on Implementation of Appropriation Laws,” which was distributed at an audit briefing on Aug. 12.

Nograles said Perez did not focus on the President’s travels but she covered allotments that exceeded appropriations for some special purpose funds (SPF), such as the contingency fund.

Guingona said Ms Arroyo had kept her official budget low by using her contingency fund to make up for the difference in her travel expenses.

He added that Ms Arroyo exceeded her contingency fund in 2008 (P920 million versus the P800-million budget) after foreign travel costs tripled to P722.8 million.

Nograles said Guingona’s staff might have inadvertently attributed the travel expenses of three dozen agencies that report to the Office of the President.

“This is very different from attributing all of the travel expenses to the President herself,” he said.

Guingona Sunday said the COA report covered the 2008 contingency fund, while the rest of his data on the excess travel funds from 2003 to 2007 were based on official figures from the Department of Budget and Management.

“Wherever the figures came from, all of these are official. What we need to do is to make special audit,” he said.

While there might be other agencies lumped under the Office of the President, he insisted that the bulk of the traveling was made by the President herself.

“They are just looking for an excuse. They have to face up to these expenses,” Guingona said.

He accused the President of going against Administration Order No. 103, which she issued in 2004, that sought a cap on foreign travel expenses to save on costs.

Ms Arroyo also racked up unliquidated expenses of P632 million as of 2007, according to the opposition lawmaker. With reports from Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. and Agence France-Presse