EDITORIAL - Fiscal prudence

Malacañang officials can’t say whether it’s an official or working visit. What President Arroyo’s forthcoming trip to Washington surely isn’t is a state visit, meaning the host country will foot the bill of the guest and a limited number of companions.

So Philippine taxpayers will bankroll the President’s trip to Washington — the second this year — for her long-coveted meeting with US President Barack Obama. The trip will take place just two weeks after her arrival from Egypt for the meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement. This is a recession year, but it also happens to be the constitutionally mandated final months of the President in office. And she appears bent on maximizing those final moments by jumping on any excuse to visit every corner of the globe. Money is no object, though it should be, since it’s not her money being spent for such trips.

There is no way the President will pass up a chance to realize her dream of chatting face-to-face with Obama. After all, she once dropped everything and rushed to Washington from the Middle East just to attend a prayer breakfast where her presence was not even acknowledged by the US president. The next best thing that President Arroyo can do is to keep her traveling entourage to a minimum.

Already it looks like the House of Representatives is ready to temporarily relocate to Washington at the end of the month, with the President’s legislative allies scrambling to join the pilgrimage to the White House. Everyone is vowing to spend personal funds for the trip. With opaque accounting of congressional expenditures, would taxpayers ever know the truth?

If part of President Arroyo’s agenda in going to Washington is to follow up requests for bigger US aid, Obama may have second thoughts about granting it when he sees a large group accompanying his guest. If the Philippine government has money to spend for a large delegation, or if all those Filipino public officials have personal funds to spend for a costly overseas trip in this year of economic contraction, why spare a bigger chunk of American taxpayers’ money for aid to the Philippines?

The trip is still two weeks away. That should be enough time for President Arroyo to set an example in fiscal prudence by trimming her delegation to a bare minimum.