GMA, Zamora head caretaker body

Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will co-chair the government caretaker committee after President Estrada leaves for a five-day state visit to China on Tuesday.

The caretaker committee, which is co-chaired by Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora, will meet as soon as the presidential plane takes off from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Press Secretary Ricardo Puno Jr. told The STAR yesterday.

The President will continue to run the government while he is in China through the caretaker committee or the Office of the President Executive Coordinating Committee, Zamora said.

He said the caretaker committee's members also comprise Cabinet Cluster E on national security concerns, which has been meeting daily since fighting in Mindanao erupted last week.

Zamora will be Cluster E's acting chairman because Foreign Affairs Secretary Domingo Siazon Jr. will be part of the President's official delegation to China.

Zamora, meanwhile, rejected calls from some quarters for President Estrada to postpone his state visit to China in light of the hostage situation in Basilan and Sulu and the armed conflict with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

"This is really important for the President to go there (China)," he said. "We hope that our people will accept that even if the President will be physically out of the country, he is still in command of the situation."

Zamora said the problem in Mindanao is not enough reason for Mr. Estrada to postpone his state visit to China because the same people will be in charge of operations.

"He will leave (the situation to) the caretaker committee which is essentially Cluster E, which the President is also using to conduct the operations right now," he said. "There is no change in the system."

Zamora said the President should also take care of the country's external problems like the dispute with neighboring countries and China over the Spratly islands in the South China Sea.

"In the first place, it is (with) China that we must talk about the Spratlys and Scarborough Shoal," he said. "It is (with) China that we must talk about regional stability. It is China which is our No. 1 competitor in our exports. In short, this is not only a goodwill trip or sales mission of President Estrada or his government."

The President's China visit will be his second foreign trip this year.