President Arroyo is taking a commercial flight this afternoon to the United States for her four-city tour of the US which will include a breakthrough meeting with US President Barack Obama. It will be Mrs. Arroyo’s 72nd foreign trip since she assumed the presidency in 2001.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the President, accompanied by a lean delegation as part of her administration’s belt-tightening measures, will be the first Southeast Asian leader to be received by Obama at the White House on July 30.

She is set to leave Manila at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday via Philippine Airlines, barely two days after she delivered her ninth and last State of the Nation Address before Congress.

Her latest overseas travel will bring to 41 the countries she has visited as president. It is also her 16th visit to the US, a clear importance she is giving to the nation’s relationship with the world’s remaining superpower.

During her previous trips, Mrs. Arroyo took chartered flights. Opposition camps have been criticizing her administration for her ballooning travel expenditures that had reached P8 billion since she assumed office.

“The update is that we are scheduled to depart by commercial flight,” Remonde told a press conference.

He maintained that only five senior government officials are joining the President in her historic meeting at the White House. Among them are Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, Philippine Ambassador to the US Willy Gaa, and the leaders of the two houses of Congress, subject to confirmation.

“There is no change to the number of one plus five, meaning the President and five other Philippine government officials and President Barack Obama plus five other US officials on one hand,” he said.

He said more or less 20 congressmen will be joining the presidential delegation.

During her Monday SoNA, the President said the key component of her meeting with the US chief will be peace and security.

“High on our agenda will be peace and security issues. Terrorism: how to meet it, how to end it, how to address its roots in injustice or prejudice—and first and always how to protect lives,” she said.

According to her, they will also discuss nuclear non-proliferation and other concerns, including climate change and the worsening impact of the global recession.

The Philippines will chair the review of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty in New York in May 2010.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita will also be accompanying the President, which will make Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Raul Gonzalez acting executive secretary.

Apart from Washington DC, Mrs. Arroyo will also travel to New York City, Chicago, and Guam before returning to Manila on August 5.

President Arroyo is expected to give Obama updates on the Mindanao peace process since the US has been among the largest donors of development assistance to the troubled southern Philippines.

In Washington, the President is also due to rub elbows with Senator Harry Reid, members of the House committee on ways and means, and lawmakers belonging to the RP-US Friendship Caucus. She is likewise set to attend a forum on Coral Triangle Initiative hosted by the National Geographic.

On July 31, Mrs. Arroyo will hold talks with officials of the Millennium Challenge Corporation and representatives from the US Veterans’ Affairs Office before dining with members of the Filipino community.

A day after her MCA meeting, the President will fly to New York to meet with US multinational companies with investments in the country. She will then proceed to Chicago for her meetings with American industrialists, business leaders and the Filipino community.

On Monday, the Chief Executive will fly to Guam to meet state officials, many of whom are of Filipino ancestry, and meet thousands of Filipinos living and working in the US territory.

As this developed, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. Tuesday suggested to President Arroyo to consider three issues she could take up with Obama when they meet in Washington, D. C.

One of the issues, he said, is the case of the ten Filipino civilian workers who died or were injured in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan last July 19. The Filipinos were employees of a US-based construction firm, the Aim Group, Inc.

Pimentel likewise batted for the possibility of Mrs. Arroyo securing for Filipino professionals guaranteed slots or quotas in the expected one million nurses that the US would reportedly need by 2021, and that the US would help resolve the decades-old Moro secessionist problem in Mindanao.

‘’Mrs. President, kindly forgive this offer of an unsolicited advice but I do hope that you take it in the spirit in which it is given: to help our people and your administration get a better deal from the US which has always been our ally and our friend,’’ Pimentel said.

The 10 Filipino helicopter crash victims, according to Pimentel, were Celso Q. Caralde, Ely I. Carino, Ernesto C. de Vega, Manolito C. Hornilla, Leopoldo G. Jimenez Jr., Mark Joseph C. Mariano, Marvin P. Najera, Rene D. Taboclaon, Ricardo E. Vallejos and Noli M. Vista.

The senator said he understood that they were all covered by insurance and that the US government has paid more than $1.5 million in premiums for the war-zone insurance coverage for civilian employees. Individually, the employees were entitled to $300,000.

“To the best of my information, the wounded workers or the heirs of those killed have applied for the benefits but the insurance companies like the American Insurance Group have either rejected the applications or have offered token sums,” Pimentel said.