WASHINGTON DC – President Arroyo is set to cut short her visit to the United States to join the Filipino nation in grief over the death of former President Corazon Aquino back home.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the President might return to Manila earlier as scheduled since she could afford to miss other public engagements in her three-city US journey.

Ermita said he will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. Saturday (11 p.m. Saturday) to announce which of the President's activities in the US will be cut short.

After a three-day visit in Washington DC highlighted by her meeting with US President Barack Obama, Mrs. Arroyo flew to New York City for a flurry of business calls and a meeting with the Filipino community leaders scheduled until August 2.

From New York City, the President is supposed to visit Chicago and Guam for meetings with potential investors and Filipino communities before she returns to Manila on August 5.

"She is coming back in deference to Mrs. Aquino’s demise and share in the grief of Filipinos over the loss of the former President who was instrumental in restoring democracy in the Philippines," Ermita said.

Ermita said the President has signed Proclamation 1850 declaring a 10-day period of national mourning for the late former President.

During the mourning period, August 1 to 10, the President has instructed that all flags in government buildings and installations be flown at half-mast in her (Mrs. Aquino’s) honor.

In her proclamation, President Arroyo said Mrs. Aquino will always be remembered and will live forever in the heart of every Filipino “as a beloved mother of the nation who led her people back to the road of freedom and democracy.”

The President, in Administrative Order No. 269, also created a four-member Committee on the Funeral of the late president to be led by Executive Secretary Ermita and Foreign Affairs Alberto Romulo, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno as members.

In creating the Committee, the President said “it is fitting and proper that appropriate official acts and observances be carried out in connection with the funeral arrangements for the former president, commensurate with the people’s love and respect for her.”

She said that representatives duly designated by the Senate, the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court and the family of the late President will also be invited to join the Committee.

Said Committee is empowered to create such subcommittees as may be necessary to assist it in the performance of its functions.