MANILA - Malacañang admitted on Saturday that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her entourage had a lavish dinner in a fancy French restaurant in New York during her recent US trip, but said it was a congressman who paid the $20,000 (around P1 million) bill.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde told ABS-CBN News that it was Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez who picked up the tab at the Le Cirque in New York, not the Office of the President.

He said President Arroyo and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo were merely invited to the dinner. They also had nothing to do with the expensive choices on the menu, he added.

"It was Congressman Martin Romualdez who invited the First Couple to dinner at Le Cirque in New York. As to how much the dinner costs, Malacañang does not know as it was the host who chose the menu and picked up the tab," Remonde said. "There was no partying. Just dinner pure and simple."

Opposition leader Jejomar Binay and activist group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) had criticized the US$20,000 dinner, saying it was unconscionable in the midst of national mourning for the late former President Corazon Aquino and widespread poverty in the country.

"While the nation was in mourning, a report that Mrs. Arroyo and her people were celebrating in New York with expensive wine leaves a bad taste in the mouth," Binay said in a statement. (Read: Binay to Palace: 'Justify P1-M dinner in NY')

Citing online reports, Binay said Mrs. Arroyo and her entourage allegedly ordered 11 bottles of Krug champagne priced at $510 per bottle. The whole entourage also feasted on Osetra caviar ($1,400 for five ounces), a "Chef's Tasting Menu" or wine paired with a dish for $4,500 for 25 orders, and a "three-course Chef's Seasonal Menu worth $1,450 for 25 orders.

Binay said "the dinner was held a few hours before they left for Manila to pay their respects to Aquino at the Manila Cathedral on August 5."

New York Post report

A New York Post online news article said Mrs. Arroyo's wine and dine at the Le Cirque totaled $20,000, which is equivalent to almost one million in Philippine peso (P955,400).

The New York Post article, posted August 7, said: "Philippines President Maria Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was at Le Cirque the other night with a large entourage enjoying the good life... Macapagal-Arroyo ordered several bottles of very expensive wine, pushing the dinner tab up to $20,000."

"The Arroyo administration talks about giving honor and respect to the memory of the former president. It seems that spending an astonishing amount of money - enough to provide almost 3,000 hungry families with three square meals - appears to be their idea of honoring and respecting Cory," Binay said.

He added: "How Mrs. Arroyo and her administration can justify blowing P960,000 for dinner and expensive wine at a time of economic difficulty is beyond me."

Inappropriate, regardless

Bayan had also asked Malacañang to explain the extravagant spending.

“Malacañang has a lot of explaining to do about this latest allegation which came out in an American paper. Who spent for the lavish dinner? Is it appropriate for a head of state of a Third World country like Mrs. Arroyo to wine and dine in such a manner, given that we’re in the midst of a crisis?” Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes said in a statement on Saturday. (Read: Palace told: Explain Arroyo's alleged $20,000 dinner in NY)

The activist leader said that even if the expensive dinner was paid by somebody else, "it still would not look appropriate" because of the Philippines' poverty and hunger rate.

President Arroyo met with US President Barack Obama last July 30 in Washington D.C. and visited New York before cutting short her trip just in time for Mrs. Aquino's wake at the Manila Cathedral last August 5.
 
Bayan said that the Gallup's World Food Day survey released last November 2008, showed 4 in 10 Filipinos experienced hunger "often or sometimes" in the last 12 months. (Read also: SWS: Hunger affects 3.7M families)

“It’s embarrassing for the Philippines to have such write-ups appear in a foreign paper. It begs the question, what is Mrs. Arroyo really doing during her trips? Are taxpayers being made to shoulder the lavish lifestyles of the so-called rich and famous?” Reyes said.

He said the supposed lavish display at the prestigious restaurant bolsters perception that Philippine government officials are corrupt "and are living it up while others wallow in crisis." -- with a report from Israel Malasa, ABS-CBN News