GMA trips

Malacañang Palace is waging a media advertisement campaign — dubbed as “Miles for Progress” — that sought to justify President Arroyo’s foreign travels. This was in response to renewed criticisms from political quarters over the unfettered globetrotting of the President. But the media ad was ill-prepared and obviously hurriedly done and ends up in a lame attempt to address the issue head on.

For the first six months of this year alone, she has gone out of the country seven times. From Jan. 30 to Feb. 7, she went to Davos-Milan-Riyadh-Bahrain-Washington, DC. From Feb. 27 to March 1, the President flew to Thailand to attend the Leaders’ Summit of the Association of South East Asian Nations that was abruptly cut short by the political strife in Chiang Mai. On April 10 to 14, she flew back to Thailand for the resumption of the Asean Leaders’ Summit that was disrupted and from there, she proceeded to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). From May 2 to 5, Mrs. Arroyo made a short swing in Egypt and Syria. Two weeks later, from May 15 to 16, the President participated in an international conference about protecting coral reefs in Manado, Indonesia.

After two weeks again, or from May 30 to June 6, she was off anew abroad. She first took flight to Seoul, South Korea, unmindful of the A(H1N1) pandemic and renewed tension over nuclear arms of the divided peninsula. From Seoul, she then flew to St. Petersburg in Russia. And another two weeks later, or from June 17 to 29, the President flew to Tokyo, Japan, then had an unscheduled stopover to Colombia before flying for a state visit to Brazil. And before coming back to Manila Monday night, she made another unscheduled side trip to Hong Kong with her official entourage that included the members of the First Family, including her husband, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde, taking up the cudgels for his embattled boss, described the presidential trips abroad as part of discharging Mrs. Arroyo’s role as “top salesperson of the Philippines.” Remonde assured the Filipinos that these Presidential visits abroad have reaped huge benefits for the country that include more trade, investments, development assistance, tourism promotion, new job opportunities and improvement of the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and foreign loans, if I may add.

I say “Amen” to these gains and benefits that come out of presidential trips abroad. I have personally witnessed the significance of these state visits and official trips abroad. Bragging aside, The STAR has sent me to cover quite a number of these presidential trips overseas while I was still pounding the Palace beat 

For everyone’s information, airplane fares to hotel billeting, per diems, and other expenses are paid for by private media entities like The STAR for each reporter and photographer they send to cover presidential trips overseas. So you can just imagine how expensive it is for us in private media to cover these frequent presidential trips at a rate of once a month that Mrs. Arroyo logged for the first half of this year.

Traipsing across the globe, common sense tells us the Chief Executive has to do a lot of these official travels, especially those where our country must meet its international commitments and memberships in world bodies. Aside from Asean, the President attends the annual Leaders’ Summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Asia-Europe Meeting, the World Economic Forum (WEF), among other international organizations where the Philippines must make its presence felt and be recognized. Yes, these presidential trips in summit meetings abroad are paid for by taxpayers’ money.

State visits are another thing. For the President and members of her family and a fixed number of official delegation in a state visit are shouldered by the host government. However, of course, there are also costs that the Philippine government must pay for.

And before any of these presidential travels push through, there is always the standard practice of sending an advance party to prepare for these visits. These are the other costs of these presidential traipsing. Thus, it should be no surprise if figures run as high as P3 billion being mentioned by critics as having been spent out of government coffers for Mrs. Arroyo’s travel log over the past eight and a half years in office.

At this late stage of her administration, these presidential trips abroad are being seen as less and less necessary, though. This is why, I think, her peripatetic ways have generated undue attention and unwarranted criticisms from her arch administration foes.

These presidential travels abroad have unnecessarily become fodder for politicking related to the May 2010 elections. While these criticisms may be popularly valid, they are not, however, realistic to the demands required from a President to lead the country in a globalized community of nations.

The Chief Executive has more or less eclipsed the travel log of former President Fidel V. Ramos (FVR). For his own traipsing around the world during his six-year term in office, his middle initial “V” — which stood for Valdez — earned another meaning as “viajero” (traveler) as digs for his frequent (gallivanting?) around the country and around the world.

In fairness, though, the Ramos administration embarked on the most organized, most open to media and highly cost-effective foreign travels that were well worth it. That is speaking from my own experience from many of these presidential trips abroad, including those of President Arroyo.

When deposed President Joseph Estrada assumed office in 1998, he vowed not to follow the footloose Ramos. In his shortened term of two and a half years in office, Estrada went abroad on official trips related to APEC and ASEAN and state visits to US, Japan, China, South Korea and Argentina. I distinctly remember when Estrada was forced to dramatically cut short his state visit to China after a bomb exploded and injured several people in a big mall in Pasig City.

At the rate improvised explosive devices have been lately blasting roadsides in Mindanao and unexploded bombs being discovered in the most unexpected places in Metro Manila, there could be a positive way of looking at all of these. It might similarly make President Arroyo stay in the country for a long while.