Former President and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is slowly warming up to the press, now that she's no longer the president who is traditionally attended by a cordon sanitaire.

During the lunch hosted weekly by the House minority for reporters Monday, Mrs. Arroyo surprisingly showed up to get acquainted with the reporters covering the House of Representatives.

Though she didn't grant any interviews, Mrs. Arroyo stayed to take some pictures with the reporters, before she proceeded to the weekly meeting of the minority at the minority leader's office which is near the press office.

Her spokeswoman, Elena Bautista Horn, said Mrs. Arroyo's promise to grant interviews after three months still stands.

Horn had earlier said that maybe Mrs. Arroyo knows that she (Horn) would be giving birth in three months, and Mrs. Arroyo would have no choice but to grant interviews herself.

"Maybe she knows that I'm giving birth soon and she might have to answer your questions that you address to me," Horn said.

"Sometimes I'm touched, because it occurs to me that many of her statements and efforts, like the bill benefitting breastfeeding mothers, were made in consideration of my situation," she added.

Unlike in the past when she was still president and as such, should observe extreme formality when seen in public, Mrs. Arroyo can now address reporters she personally knew by their first names, like reporters who covered her in Malacañang before.