Aside from the everyday headache of providing viands is the problem of buying rice, the staple food. Nanay Evelyn complained that she cannot stomach eating NFA rice, saying that no matter how many times she washes it, she can still smell the pesticide that is sprayed on it. “As much as I can, I try to remove the yellow grains from it because they taste and smell awful once it is cooked. They seemed to have combined substandard rice with the NFA rice for us, the poor people, to eat,” she said.

Sonny Africa, research head of independent think tank Ibon Foundation, said that poor economic policies and governance are reflected in Arroyo and her cohorts’ lavish dinner in the United States. “It shows that the country’s leaders have a standard of living that is very distant from the everyday reality of a Filipino people,” he said.

Alyssa, youngest daughter of Nanay Evelyn, shows what remains of the fish she had for breakfast. (Photo by Janess Ann J. Ellao / bulatlat.com)

In Congress, Reps. Satur Ocampo and Teddy Casiño of Bayan Muna (People First) and Liza Maza of the Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) have filed House Resolution no. 1315, calling for an investigation into the expensive dinners ordered by the president and her entourage.

“Even if no people’s taxes were used to pay for the bill, all government officials are prohibited from accepting any substantial gift – such as a million-peso dinner – on any occasion. It is not only unethical, but also criminal to have had that embarrassingly expensive dinner. It is also not the job of those in the legislative to grant favors and defend the extravagances and excesses of the executive branch,” the resolution read.

Fish paste is a favorite dish among the poor. (Photo by Janess Ann J. Ellao / bulatlat.com)

The Baguio City-based urban poor organization Ornus has expressed support for the resolution filed by the three progressive party-list representatives. Ornus chairman Ignacio Pangket called the dinners “a display of arrogance by a state leader (majority of whose people) experience extreme poverty and involuntary hunger.”

“If you will divide the money spent on that dinner among all the people who were there, the share of a single person would have been enough to feed one poor family for the whole year,” Ian told Bulatlat.

“Baka nga sobra pa,” Ian’s wife Joylen said when she heard her husband’s answer. (With a report by Arthur L. Allad-iw / Northern Dispatch) (Bulatlat.com)

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