Former President and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would not be receiving any special treatment from her fellow congressmen, and she had not been offered the supposed “privilege” of holding office at a room bigger than the usual offices at the House of Representatives.


Arroyo’s former presidential chief of staff, Elena Bautista-Horn, clarified that Arroyo had not been offered to stay at the special room at the House of Representatives as reported. “She told me that she has not been offered that room,” Bautista said.


The VIP room that was supposed to have been offered to Arroyo is the room adjacent to the Speaker’s office which was given as consolation to Pangasinan Rep. Jose De Venecia when he was ousted as Speaker in 2008. Dionisio Tubianosa, an information officer in Congress, said Arroyo might be avoiding any special treatment for her, which she won’t be expecting anyway from her peers in Congress.


Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales II, who is eyeing the post of majority floor leader, said fellow congressmen should not be intimidated by the presence of a former president on the floor of Congress, although she might receive extraordinary courtesy from individual congressmen on a personal level.


“As much as possible, no special treatment. But on a personal level, you have to give respect that is due to a former president. Even if you say that in the House, the Speaker is the first among equals, you cannot close the fact that she was once the president,” Gonzales said.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 9th, 2010 at 11:40 pm and is filed under News and Updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.