Arroyo suffers new public embarrassment - March 9, 2007

By JAY R. GOTERA

The Saudi Gazette

MANILA

FOR the second time this year, President Gloria Arroyo suffered public embarrassment live on nationwide television on Thursday when she was heckled continuously by about 8,000 women who came to listen to her speech on the observance of Women’s Day.

Last week, Arroyo was also loudly booed when she attended a concert by the international pop group Il Divo. The audience, made up mostly of the elite, booed her when the emcee announced her entrance to the concert hall and again just as she was leaving.

The latest presidential embarrassment occurred at the Ninoy Aquino sports stadium in Manila where Arroyo was the main speaker in a program on the micro finance project of the national government.

Believing that her crowd was composed of micro finance beneficiaries, Arroyo asked her audience if they have already received their benefits from the program.

To her utter dismay, a stunned Arroyo heard a loud chorus of voices saying, “No!”

She probably could not believe what she heard, prompting her to ask the audience again if they have benefited from the project. Again the resounding response was an even louder “No!”

Arroyo asked a representative of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to explain what happened. The DSWD aide told her that majority of the crowd were composed of government employees who did not benefit from the micro-finance project.

The project was originally intended for jobless citizens as they will be allowed to borrow from the government and non-government organizations (NGOs) to be able to start a small business.

Upon learning of the blunder of the organizers, Arroyo tried to keep her poise by asking the government employees if they had received their P1,000 additional allowance released last year.

For the third time, the crowd bellowed, “No!”

Trying to keep her composure, Arroyo simply promised her audience that she would expand the micro-finance program so that all government employees could benefit from it.

It was learned that the supposed audience of the program — the micro finance project’s beneficiaries -- attended another Women’s Day celebration, prompting the organizers to hastily picked up government employees who could fill-up the crowd.

Arroyo was not briefed by the organizers on what happened.

After the embarrassing incident, she and the organizers held a closed door meeting.

Ironically, the opposition was the first one to express sympathy to the President for what happened. The spokesman of the Genuine Opposition (GO) said nobody, not even its political rivals, deserves to be booed.

But according to Adel Tamano, GO spokesman, the hecklers cannot also be blamed since they have clearly not received the benefits promised by the administration.

He added they “pity” the President for the embarrassment she suffered.