Arroyo's costly foreign spending could be stopped—Cartagena
Amid the hullabaloo hounding the Arroyo administration over extravagant dinner and costly foreign trips, Ilonggo lawyer Daniel Cartagena said the President could be stopped from further committing extravagant spending in her trips abroad by way of a court petition.
Cartagena, who is very vocal on social issues affecting the people, said any private or government charitable institution may file with the proper court a petition seeking to stop thoughtless extravagance committed by any person either private or government.
This, he said, is provided in Article 25 of the New Civil Code of the Philippines which reads: “Thoughtless extravagance in expenses for pleasure or display during a period of acute public want or emergency may be stopped by order of the court at the instance of any government or private charitable institution.”
Malacañang has been under fire for the president's foreign trips after the New York Post published in its Page Six section that she and her entourage of 65 people spent $20,000 dollars (around P1 million) for their dinner at Le Cirque, a French restaurant in New York.
The Washington Post later reported that the group also spent $15,000 (around P700,000) at Bobby Van’s Steakhouse in Washington, D.C.
Cartagena said, such extravagance is uncalled for as majority of the Filipinos live below poverty line.
“The amount instead should be spent for more school buildings, more teachers, more medicines or subsidize the cost of rice and other basic commodities,” Cartagena said.
Although two congressmen claimed to have paid the controversial dinners in the US, Cartagena said it still does not justify the president and her party from engaging in such lavish food trip as the nation is suffering from poverty.
Cartagena also commented on the series of Pres. Arroyo's foreign trips for the past five years which cost billions of pesos.
Cartagena observed that the President's foreign trips, usually entailing a huge entourage composed of her political allies, had not benefited the ordinary Filipino who is languishing in hunger and poverty.
“The 2.1 billion pesos spent by PGMA for the past five years in going around the world or trips abroad would have effectively unburdened our people had it been spent for health care, education and job openings,” Cartagena stressed.