Do you mind the President's frequent foreign travels?

Ryan Pahimulin, Rizal: I don’t mind. It’s necessary to maintain good relationship with other countries and attract foreign investors and tourists, right? 

Lydia Reyes, Bataan: That’s what I don’t like about the President. She’s fond of traveling and everytime she’s out of the country, disaster comes! 

That’s our money she’s spending

Elpidio Que, Vigan: Of course, I mind. That’s our money she’s spending extravagantly in convincing the world that she is a genuine leader. She and her large entourage dine in restaurants not befitting our Third World status.

Fortunato Aguirre, Bulacan: I don’t mind if she tours the galaxy. What I’m worried about is her squandering the people’s tax money. 

Juan Deveraturda, Zambales: The President should be sensitive to public opinion and sentiment as many of our people are against her frequent foreign travels. She should cut down on thes foreign trips and travel costs. She should serve as a model of simplicity. If it’s not extremely necessary, she should turn down invitations to attend conferences and conventions outside the country. The people’s money should be wisely and properly spent for programs that would address the growing poverty in the country and not on unnecessary foreign travels of government officials. 

Julea Tolentino, Ilocos Sur: I do mind the President’s frequent foreign travels because it is our money she’s using. If it’s for the betterment of our country, then it’s okay. She can go anywhere provided that she uses our money well. 

Stefi Monika Suero, Ilocos Sur: GMA’s foreign trips are for the betterment of our country, but she should know her own limits because she is using the money of our country. 

C.B. Manalastas, Manila: The travels are much too much considering our economic state. She has done her share to promote our country abroad. 

Her travels serve a purpose

J.R. Mondonedo Jr., Parañaque City: She is the President and she has the last say and I’m sure she has a purpose for her frequent travels for as long as she brings home the bacon. 

Jarel Aubrey Apelin, Vigan City: No, her travels abroad brng in much-needed investments, trade and aid that buoys our economy despite the global economic meltdown. 

Ed Piano, Olongapo City: We know for a fact that not only are these travels official but investments are formalized or opportunities open up when the President travels. We should encourage our leaders to look around, get an idea as to how our country looks from outside and use a broader vision in order for our country to move forward. We don’t want to live in a vacuum, you know. 

Eddie Yap, Kabankalan City: No, I don’t mind one bit PGMA’s frequent travels abroad. Actually, everytime she comes back from these travels, she has with her good news and accomplishments that will benefit the country. Sad to say, these achievements are not given much attention by the media as the opposition’s drumbeaters only play up their bad sides. I’m sure that if the President were to opt to stay in her office most of the time, they would accuse her of being a lameduck leader who’s immobile and insensitive to the plight of her country. 

C.B. Fundales, Bulacan: GMA’s foreign trips are in line with her tasks as President. RP isn’t a hermit state. Concern for 12 million Filipinos abroad can already justify her trips. 

Loi Castillo, Davao City: Not at all. The country belongs to a league of nations where state visits are important to create trade and maintain diplomatic relations. Unfortunately, the Office of the President is the most envied position in the land. The office has the perks and privileges that other people also want to have. 

Amadeus Plete, Ilocos Sur: It’s true that PGMA’s foreign travels are expensive but the other side of the coin is that these travels reap positive results. 

Rodrigo Evano, Metro Manila: The greatest salesman of our country today attracting investors is the President herself so let her do her job to help alleviate our country’s economy. 

Armando Tavera, Las Piñas City:  I believe that those travels purportedly made by the President are purely for business. There’s nothing unusual about that.

Rodolfo Talledo, Angeles City: The President is also our prime saleswoman. Our country is in dire need of foreign investments to stay economically afloat. Globalization is the recourse for progress and not reclusive ideas that would bring us more to stagnation and sufferings. If you expect profits, put on the needed capital. 

Josh Pacatang, Dipolog City: Yes, I do mind GMA’s foreign travels because I encourage them. I know that she travels abroad on official invitations by sovereign States, the United Nations or prestigious international bodies and she is well-received in each of them. 

Jenny Rose Arenas, Ilocos Sur: I really don’t mind PGMA’s frequent foreign travels. As long as those trips are official and for national interest, she can never go wrong. If that would mean that she has to enjoy the privileges that go with such trips, so be it. 

I’d be more worried if she didn’t travel

Rico Fabello, Parañaque City: No, I’d start worrying when we have a President that never goes out of the country.  

I don’t care

Elizabeth Oximer, Negros Occidental: Hindi na, manhid na ako. I would rather put my energy on helping Noynoy be president. 

Jose Parco, Aklan: Who cares, and why should I? I wouldn’t lose sleep over it if she spends a lot of time on a world tour courtesy of poor damn Juan dela Cruz. One positive thing is she travels with a brigade of hangers on and kapalmuks which is good for us that way so they can do less harm. Our country is a lot better without them anyway. 

Leonard Villa, Batac City: Before yes, but now not anymore because even if I keep screaming to my lung’s content that I’m against GMA’s foreign travels, she just ignores criticism. 

The travels need not be too expensive

Joe Nacilla, Las Piñas City: I don’t care if our government officials travel abroad daily or monthly. Foreign travels by our government officials are a necessity, except that, the travels should not be too expensive. The problem is that once abroad, they have the penchant for grandiose spending. 

Tino Abella, Masbate: Foreign trips are a must to promote better ties globally, but it becomes distasteful with excessive spending at the expense of Juan dela Cruz. 

She must keep her entourage lean

Rod Villar, Iriga City: I don’t mind even if GMA always travels abroad, baka kailangan nga. What I dislike is that she’s globetrotting with so many sabit, perhaps the reason why she has overspent her travel expenses by P1 billion.

Eufrocino Linsangan, Isabela: I don’t mind as long as these foreign travels benefit the country. She should, however, limit the size of her entourage and no more lavish dinners, please!

Ishmael Q. Calata, Parañaque City: I don’t mind provided that she limits the sze of her entourage so that the expenses can be reduced. I believe that her foreign trips promote the goodwill of our country among the peoples of the world and secure labor opportunities for our people and additional investments.

Ishmael Q. Calata, Parañaque City: I would mind if the trips were of not much value to the nation, especially when a large excess baggage composed of junketing people are with her. Some trips in the past were suspected to have been scheduled so that these junketing people could watch live some big events of interest, such as the ring fights of Manny Pacquiao, which was their primary reason for going. I wouldn’t mind if the trips were necessary to make such as in regional or world meets. I strongly mind side trips where the agenda is not clear. 

William Gonzaga, Marikina City: PGMA has the right and obligation to honor those invitations for such official trips abroad. However, she must be highly selective considering our poor economic situation. Furthermore, she must also travel with a lean entourage and avoid huge delegations.

Ruben Viray, Antipolo City: Globalization is the name of the game in our present times. Every nation should interact with each other in many ways, and the physical appearance of their leader is very important to gain mutual harmonious relations. Our President is authorized to have foreign travels as needed as long as this trip will benefit the entire Filipino community. It should be brief with limited financial resources and chaperons as well to save on costs. Recent events show that our leader goes beyond the limit and this must be corrected. Obviously, it is the people’s money they are spending and should be controlled. 

Can’t she stay put?

Dennis Montealto, Mandaluyong City: Could she just, for the remaining months of her term, please stay put and address the country’s domestic problems without having to travel abroad? 

Ed Alawi, Davao City : Yes, she should stay in the country in the last few months of her governance and work on her best legacy to erase the bad issues against her. 

A needless burden on the people

Sahlee Reyes, Las Piñas City: Yes, I do mind. PGMA has been using with reckless extravagance the country’s taxes that it’s only natural for every thinking Filipino to grouse over these travels primarily because most were just unnecessary junkets, just for protocol on diplomacy and state etiquette as friendly nations. So apparently, these unnecessary trips were just for personal gratification or a congregational holiday for the administration. PGMA’s retinue of good-for-nothing “honorable” wolves in sheep’s clothing who brazenly jump at every opportunity to tag along with her junkets all the more make my blood boil with their senseless squandering of a big chunk of taxpayers’ money.  

Geeann Rivera, San Pablo City: Yes, I do because I think her foreign trips are just a waste of public funds. Nagpapasarap lang sa abroad, bitbit pa pati mga alipores niya. Binobola lang niya ang tao when she says that her trips will bring home more jobs to Filipinos. 

Elsa Mendoza, Quezon City: It is bruited about that PGMA “brings home the bacon” on her travels, but these we know are mostly promises for loans and if they do come in we have to pay such back, thus ballooning Philippine debt. Her travel expenses are normally colossal, no thanks to hangers-on permanent and occasional, lavish meals, over-the-top accommodations.  It’s a pathetic situation, like pouring money into a bottomless vessel while we, poor Filipino citizens, have to suffer paying back. Odious! 

Jun Lim, Angeles City: Waldas lang ng pera sa bayan yan, pupunta siya sa ibang bansa para lang mangutang at mangutang nang mangutang. Ganun siya mag palakad sa bansa natin. 

Randolph Hallasgo, Metro Manila: Yes I mind because she wastes the people’s money. The money that was spent in those expensive restaurants could have been used to feed poor Filipinos who have nothing to eat. 

Rose Leobrera, Manila: Of course I do, because the more they spend money for their luxurious trips abroad, the more I will be pinned down by the heavy load of taxes that they impose. Talagang makapal ang gobyernong ito. Jetsetters to the max without even spending a single centavo. 

Narciso Alano, Cabanatuan City: Yes, indeed. That is squandering my tax money, moreso when she travels with her coterie of lapdogs who voraciously pig out in exclusive restaurants. 

Must we remind her that we’re a poor country?

Ed Gulmatico, Yemen: It’s a widely known belief that the President and her entourage in their foreign trips also use OWWA funds for those trips. We OFWs contribute our hard-earned money in exchange for our blood, sweat and tears just so our honorable President “and her leeches/vultures entourage” can enjoy their very satisfying trip, dine and drink in expensive restaurants while billeted in seven or five-star hotels and heavenly enjoy every second of their lives while in these foreign trips, all courtesy of the Filipino people. This is notwithstanding that the majority of Filipinos, more than 40 per cent, wallow in extreme poverty and can hardly eat even once a day. 

L.C. Fiel, Quezon City: When there are so many hungry children in streets stealing and scavenging for food and government hospitals can no longer take care of indigent patients for lack of medicines and facilities, when workers are barely surviving, our President travels abroad for just about any excuse. Nakaka-high blood talaga. 

Manuel Abejero, Pangasinan: Yes, I do, Botolan, Porac and Dinalupihan are submerged in water and the DSWD is running short of noodles, milk and cereal to feed those evacuees. Just imagine how many evacuees would have been fed with the $35K and the P1B spent by GMA and her plundering and gallivanting deputies. 

Dennis Acop, Baguio City: Of course I do. It’s my money and yours she spends everytime she travels abroad, whether for a legitimate trip or a mere junket. I can understand the Chief Executive making foreign trips as part of her duty but why the very frequent travels abroad like there was no tomorrow? The President is about to end her term and this is what she does tour the world like a whirlwind. Do we need to remind the President that the Philippines is still a developing country with over half of its population living below the poverty line? If the trips tend to favor only the already rich in this country, forget it. We don’t need that. What a very insensitive leader we have in the Philippines. 

She’s responding positively to her critics

Renato Taylan, Ilocos Norte: Not anymore. The President has already learned to be prudent in her overseas engagements. She is responding positively to her critics. 

She’s like Imelda and her junkets

Marilou Sy, Metro Manila: Yes, I do. She reminds me of Imelda and her junkets. Also, according to economic experts, she does not really have to go abroad to forge agreements on trade, etc. with countries that are already our traditional trading parties. She went to the US so many times already. I wonder if she is doing the decorating for her sons’ houses there? I hope the media would follow up on that Barbados side trip several junkets ago. Barbados is said to be the home country of the Smartmatic foreign partners. Also, why does she go to Dubai often? Is Dubai the new Switzerland? 

Ella Arenas, Pangasinan: Of course naman, kasi it’s the people’s money, buti kung siya lang ang mag-travel eh kaso ang daming dalang excess baggage na kongresistas. Sayang ang biyahe. 

Jim Veneracion, Naga City: Actually, I don’t mind her frequent travels which are mostly junkets with her loyal congressmen, et al. They travel like they do not come from a Third World.  

Jose Jumawan, Palawan City: If you notice, PGMA outclasses all heads of States as the travelingest president the world has ever known and we are a Third World country! 

As long as her travels have fruitful results

Romeo Nabong II, Saudi Arabia: For me I do not mind at all as long her foreign trips have fruitful results.

Johann Lucas, Quezon City: Yes, if foreign travels are really that productive and beneficial, then GMA’s over 50 foreign travels so far should put the Philippines in better economic straits rather than keeping us financially strapped and constantly struggling to keep our heads above water. 

Ma. Vida de los Santos, Ilocos Sur: I mind because even though she travels to different countries, nothing seems to be happening to our own country. It has countless problems still. 

Do we have reason to suspect?

Marc Avisado, Ilocos Sur : We should look deeper into the reasons for her frequent foreign travels. Are these personal business trip disguised as official visits? The Presidential jet does not pass through Customs. Nigerian ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and his cohorts smuggled money into the US using one. Hmm. 

Look at Pres. Magsaysay

Germi Sison, Cabanatuan City: I wonder if our Presidents would travel abroad often and with a big entourage if he/she pays with his/her own money. President Ramon Magsaysay did not go abroad during his term, yet the Philippines was always represented and he gained so much admiration the world over.

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