It came late – too late, in fact – but just the same Speaker Prospero Nograles’ recent defense of President Gloria Arroyo against the sneer and hissing of her detractors was a needed response from the House leadership.

Calling Mrs. Arroyo a working president, Nograles warned her political enemies against premeditated attacks that could only damage the nation’s image before the world.

“Let’s concentrate more on the doughnut and not the hole and let’s look at the better things in life,” he said, explaining that every time that they hit the government, and hit it excessively, they are destroying our own home, our country, and our own people in the eyes of the world.

Sad to say, that what is really being left out in the midst of the senseless controversies are the benefits that the country gets each time the President embarks on official foreign trips.

The Speaker was obviously referring to the series of mocking remarks and accusations leveled against the President by opposition members on the professedly exorbitant dining bills incurred by the presidential party members’ luncheon during their latest New York visit.

As everybody may have noticed, the issue on that “lavish dinner” has been the subject of too much controversies that portray the Arroyo government as if it were the most extravagantly wasteful administration in all history.

For one thing, the Commission on Audit has been asked to conduct a special audit “on the expenses of President Arroyo in her latest visit to the United States,” particularly on the $20,000 luncheon at the Le Cirque restaurant in New York.

The expenses have been declared by the protesters as “irregular, unnecessary, excessive, extravagant or unconscionable even if the bills were footed by a private entity.”

According to reports an inquiry into the same issue is also being sought through the House committee on good government.

Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casino said the Commission on Audit has jurisdiction over the questioned amount under Resolution No. 83-6 issued on August 16, 1983.

In the same breadth, the United Opposition of Jejomar Binay has sought Malacanang’s own disclosure of the delegation’s expenses during the trip to prove that no taxpayers’ money was spent on the “exorbitant dinners and accommodation while in New York and Washington, DC.”

Earlier, Casino threatened to file impeachment charges against the President on the basis of the reported extravagant dinner.

But Chief Presidential Legal Adviser Raul Gonzales laughed off the impeachment threat, asserting that President Arroyo did not violate any law when she accepted the invitation of Congressman Martin Romualdez to dine at the Le Cirque in New York.

“There’s no case here,” the former justice secretary said, brushing aside Casino’s threat.

Now they are looking into the Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth of the Arroyos.

The plot thickens.

As far as Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago is concerned, however, her advice is for members of the presidential entourage to refrain from inviting the President to lunch or dinner – not even for breakfast – in order not to get her into trouble.

(zhern_218@yahoo.com)