Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently became the center of a dinner scandal, where, despite the fact that most of his "royal subjects" are struggling for dinner, managed to spend 20 grand on a dinner at two restaurants in DC and New York City, respectively.

From Washington Post (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/reliable-source/2009/08/rs-dinner12.html):
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's visit to the White House on July 30 didn't draw much attention, and her dinner in Washington that night got nary a mention. And that's how it might have stayed -- if not for a controversial meal in New York City.

Arroyo is under fire in her native country for a $20,000 meal at Manhattan's Le Cirque on Aug. 2, which included caviar and several bottles of champagne. The dinner, first reported in the New York Post, has Arroyo's critics comparing her to the extravagant Imelda Marcos.

The Reliable Source has learned that three days earlier, Arroyo and an entourage of about 65 people (including security and food tasters) had dinner at Bobby Van's Steakhouse on 15th Street NW hours after she met with President Obama. The group took over one of the restaurant's private rooms and dined on lobster, steak and fine wines; at the conclusion of the meal, an unidentified woman opened a handbag stuffed with cash, counted out bills and paid the $15,000 tab -- which included a generous tip.

The Philippine Embassy did not return calls for comment Tuesday.

Despite their excuses that Gloria didn't pay the bills, is it right to have such a swank dinner, or is she doing it overkill? My family and I are one of the many people who loathe his administration, and I cite her as a Mafosi-like figure, especially her husband.

Sounds extravagant to me.

If the $20k was simply for her and her hubby, yeah this is waaaaaaaay extravagant.

I mean, nobody expects that the Phillipine head of state is going to stop off at the In 'n' Out Burger joint, but a $20k meal of caviar and champagne is blatantly extravagant.

Now if she were enteretaining a foreign head of state, I could see things a bit differently.  But this story appears that it was just for her and maybe her squeeze.

Now as to the $15k dinner for 65 people, that works out to $230 a head.  Assuming that all of the attendees were legit (Bodyguards, tasters, maybe Phillipine embassy people in DC) this is not too far out of line.  They had to find a restaurant that would hold all those people and had the proper security profile, and DC ain't cheap.

I don't think the president needs to spend that much dough on something that can be done for much cheaper, considering that the majority of the people (who are already mad at her poli-tricking) are skimping for soup. Even if they stated that Gloria isn't the one who paid the bills, it is likely that the one who paid it, a politician or something, leeched it off the public funds.

Swank magazine?
:P