United Opposition (UNO) president and Makati Mayor Jejomar C. Binay criticized Saturday the alleged “extravagance” President Arroyo and her entourage to the United States enjoyed, in which the group reportedly spent some $20,000 (P960,000) in an upscale restaurant.

“The Arroyo administration talks about giving honor and respect to the memory of the former president. It seems that spending an astonishing amount of money — enough to provide almost 3,000 hungry families with three square meals — appears to be their idea of honoring and respecting Cory,” Binay said, describing the extravagance showed by the Arroyo administration as “insensitivity and hypocrisy.”

Binay said Mrs. Arroyo and her party appeared to be in a celebratory mood, with Arroyo herself reportedly ordering expensive wine, during a dinner held a few hours before they left for Manila to “pay their respects” to the late former president Aquino at the Manila Cathedral.

“While the nation was in mourning, a report that Mrs. Arroyo and her people were celebrating in New York with expensive wine leaves a bad taste in the mouth,” he said.

An item in the Food Section of the New York Post dated August 7, 2009 was quoted as saying: “The economic downturn hasn't persuaded everyone to pinch pennies. Philippine President Maria Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was at Le Cirque the other night with a large entourage enjoying the good life, even though the former comptroller of her country's armed services, Carlos Garcia, was found guilty earlier this year of per jury and two of his sons were arrested in the US on bulk cash-smuggling charges. Macapagal-Arroyo ordered several bottles of very expensive wine, pushing the dinner tab up to $20,000.”

A copy of Mrs. Arroyo’s tab, posted in several blogs, showed her ordering 11 bottles of Krug champagne priced at $510 per bottle. The entourage also feasted on Osetra caviar ($1,400 for five ounces), a “Chef’s Tasting Menu” or wine paired with a dish ($4,500 for 25 orders) and a “three-course Chef’s Seasonal Menu” ($1,450 for 25 orders).

Binay said the amount spent is enough to provide three square meals to 2,956 families living on the poverty threshold. “If you consider that an average family has six members, the P960,000 would have fed 18,000 Filipinos for one day,” he said.

“What they did was deplorable especially if taxpayers’ money was spent. If they spent private money, what they did was in bad taste and again showed insensitivity to the millions of Filipinos who face hunger daily,” he said.

Binay cited that the Philippines currently rank fifth among 56 countries where hunger is prevalent, according to a survey conducted by Gallup International.

In the recent survey by the Social Weather Station (SWS), it said that hunger grew worse in the second quarter than in the first three months of 2009, with 20.3 percent of families, or 3.7 million families, having experienced involuntary hunger. Hunger has been at double digit since 2004, the same survey said.