Arroyo making a mockery of extreme hunger and poverty in the country – group

NEWS RELEASE
August 13, 2009

On creation of “anti-hunger task force” amid reports of New York, Washington splurges
Arroyo making a mockery of extreme hunger and poverty in the country – group

The urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) expressed disbelief over the creation of a “local anti-hunger task force” amid reports of yet another dinner splurge by President Arroyo and her entourage in Washington, DC, wondering if Ms. Arroyo was “intentionally making a mockery of extreme hunger and poverty” in the country.

“What is this President doing? Is she really trying to drive the nation's poor to the point of madness?”, said Jon Vincent Marin, Kadamay information officer.

The group lambasted the President's “gall” to actually sign Executive Order 825, creating a local anti-hunger task force, and then proceeding to have two lavish dinners in the US during her visit for talks with US President Barack Obama. The latest report, of a $15,000-dinner on July 30 by Ms. Arroyo and her entourage in the Washington, DC restaurant Bobby Van's Steakhouse, made by the Washington Post, came on the heels of a New York Post revelation of a $20,000-dinner at Le Cirque in New York.

The first dinner, at Washington, was had only a day after Ms. Arroyo reportedly signed EO 825, the group noted.

“How does Ms. Arroyo have an iota of credibility in launching this 'local anti-hunger task force', when she is clearly rubbing it in on the faces of the hungry and poor how she wines and dines, how lavish her lifestyle is?”, said Marin.

The group announced that it will hold a protest action in Mendiola on Monday (August 17) to “call for public outrage and action” and to “tolerate no longer the this callous President.”

“We are calling on the public, on behalf of the urban poor, to punish Ms. Arroyo over this callousness and excess in the face of extreme hunger and hardship in our land” added Marin.

Earlier, the group noted through a statement that Ms. Arroyo's $20,000 Le Cirque dinner could've fed as much as 5,760 poor families through three square meals in a day, equivalent to almost a third of the population of Payatas, or of one or two barangays in Tondo, two of the poorest districts in Metro Manila. ##

Reference: Jon Vincent Marin, Public Information Officer, Kadamay | 0910.975.7660