Jun 25, 2008, 6:41 GMT
Manila - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's 10-day working visit to the United States while the country reeled from the havoc caused by a powerful typhoon has left a bad aftertaste for hundreds of thousands of people devastated by the tragedy.
Handout photo released by the Office of Philippine Vice-President Noli De Castro on 24 June 2008 shows Philippine Coast Guard rescue units trying to approach the sunken ferry ship MV Princess of the Stars off the coast of Sibuyan Island in Romblon province, 300 kilometres south of Manila, Philippines. EPA/EGAY MONTANA/OFFICE OF VICE-PRESIDENT NOLI DE CASTRO
Arroyo and her entourage, which included at least 59 loyal congressmen, left for the US on Saturday even as Typhoon Fengshen was battering a large area of the Philippines.
While Arroyo's aides have defended her trip and assured the country that she was still on top of the situation despite her physical absence, public opinion was stacked against the president.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer said Arroyo's junket was 'like fiddling as Rome burns.'
'President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is drawing heavy flak for continuing her junket in the United States instead of heading home to help her people cope with tragedy,' the newspaper said.
Records from various government agencies showed that at least 361 people were killed in the typhoon, with more than 740 still missing. Many of the missing were passengers and crew members of the MV Princess of the Stars, which sank on Saturday.
Damage to infrastructure, agriculture and fisheries, and property has so far been estimated at 4.37 billion pesos (97.98 million dollars), but the amount is expected to increase as more data trickle in from hard-to-reach areas.
Eduardo Ermita, Arroyo's executive secretary, said the president 'remains in control of the situation' and was constantly in touch with officials about rescue and relief efforts.
'She's been constantly in touch with us,' he added, noting that there was no need to cut short her visit. 'Our president is concerned about what happened. She's in control of the situation.'
But Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, lambasted the visit for its insensitivity to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of victims of Fengshen.
'In the face of the exaggerated and expensive trip of more than 60 of our national leadership to the United States for more than a week, how can we talk of austerity and frugality in spending the people's taxes, knowing for whom they must be urgently applied in times of great calamity,' he said.
Heidi Laurel, 21, whose parents and five brothers and sisters were among the missing in the sunken Princess of the Stars, was screaming the name of Arroyo as she desperately pleaded for information about her family.
'Where is President Arroyo? We need you here now. Where are you?' she screamed after security guards at Sulpicio Lines, the shipping company that owns of the ill-fated ferry, prevented her from entering the office.
'The insensitivity of Gloria shows much too much,' the opposition newspaper the Daily Tribune said in its editorial.
'Not even a typhoon that lashed the Philippines, with thousands rendered homeless ... causing the rapid sinking of a ship where hundreds went missing, with many dead, were enough reasons for Gloria Arroyo to cut off her working trip to the United States to meet for a few minutes an American lame duck president,' it added.
Ermita stressed that when Arroyo and her entourage left on Saturday, 'the situation as far as the typhoon is concerned was still at its development stage' and had not reached a critical point for the president to cancel her trip.
But the threat of the typhoon was already enough for Congresswoman Jannette Garin to skip the visit.
Garin was supposed to be part of Arroyo's official entourage, but she decided on the last minute not to board the plane and instead return to her congressional district in the eastern province of Iloilo.
Garin said at that time she did not know whether the typhoon would hit her province but she decided to stay just in case the situation worsened.
'I decided not to take the the flight because I know the storm was already battering the country, although at that time I (did) not know what would be the extent of the damage, but it would be better if I would be within the reach of my constituents,' she said.
'You know at times there are some decisions that need to be made that will require our physical presence,' she added. 'I was scheduled to meet with representatives of the World Bank and my counterparts in the US Congress but I skipped it. I think they will understand.'
Iloilo turned out to be the worst-hit of all the 38 provinces pummelled by Fengshen. Flashfloods swept through most of the towns and at least 101 people died.
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