Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo invites media to her Palace today but bans tape recorders & candid camera
June 22, 2010 | Posted by raissa robles By Raissa Robles
I was toying with the idea of seeing Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as President for the last time today before she morphed into a congresswoman.
She suddenly sent this blanket invite yesterday to members of the foreign press to see her launch two books on her presidency this noontime.
I received this digital invitation from the presidential palace - raissarobles.com
Unfortunately, my newspaper does not usually do spot news stories from the
Philippines – meaning, the who, when, where, what, why and how kind-of-news. It
is more into analysis, features, profiles and trends stories.
Still, seeing Mrs Arroyo for the last time inside historic Malacanang Palace might be worth the time, effort and money, I thought.
Until I thought of checking whether at least for the last time, tape recorders and candid picture-taking would be allowed.
I guess I was hoping for far too much.
I was told by a chirpy sounding girl named Anna that only officially accredited photographers could click away. And tape recorders were barred.
So I decided to watch the show on government TV station 4 instead.
I’ll just wait for her in Congress where I can click away and record away her political transformation. 
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4 Comments »
I would purchase any presidential biography you wrote, especially one of GMA
Dear Rita,
That’s a thought. An unauthorized bio of GMA. How’s that?
what!?! you passed up an opportunity to see glory in the flesh? you passed up the chance to get an autographed copy of those books, among them, FG’s “The First”. i think you could come up with a great edition of “The Firsts” of the Arroyo administration from your perspective, raissa. i think that would sell more copies. why not do it and channel proceeds of its sales to the fund for the families of the journalist victims under her glorious watch? i dare say you would raise millions.