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Sunday, September 05, 2004
Arroyo to continue foreign trips amid ban on junkets (7:10 p.m.)
MANILA -- President Arroyo will go abroad at least four more times this year despite a ban she imposed on most overseas travel for government officials as part of an austerity program, her spokesman said Sunday.
"These are official commitments and as head of state she needs to attend these international conferences," said presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye.
He confirmed that Arroyo would be flying to Brunei to attend the wedding of Brunei's Crown Prince Muhtadee Billah Bolkiah on September 9.
She will be accompanied by her husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo and Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary Angelo Reyes who were all invited by Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, Bunye added without giving further details.
Arroyo is also scheduled to go to Vietnam in October for the fifth Asia-Europe Meeting, and will attend the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, Summit in Chile and the Association of South East Asian Nations Summit in Laos both in November, Bunye added.
The president was criticized last week after she issued an order banning most foreign travel for government officials while on a three-day state visit to China, where she brought her husband, her son, two daughters-in-law, two granddaughters and their nannies.
However the palace defended the inclusion of these family members and associates, saying the Arroyo family had paid for their trip out of their own pockets.
Arroyo imposed the ban on non-essential travel as part of austerity measures intended to head off a looming fiscal crisis. (AFP) |
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