GMA, Roco co-sponsors at wedding

President Arroyo and her estranged former Cabinet member Raul Roco gamely posed for the cameras yesterday as they stood as co-sponsors in the wedding of his chief of staff Hilda Villadolid to Dr. Dennis Gonzales.

The wedding ceremonies, held at the Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament Parish in Valle Verde V in Pasig City, has become a heyday for photographers as it was the first time that the two were seen together after their controversial parting of ways.

Roco resigned from the Cabinet after the reported "leak" he was being investigated by the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission on graft charges filed against him by the Dep-Ed union.

"I was sorry to see him go but the leak about the investigation did not come from me and I am sorry that he took it that way," Mrs. Arroyo told The STAR.

Since he left the Cabinet, Roco has consistently trounced Mrs. Arroyo in 2004 election surveys. Roco alternates with popular movie star Fernando Poe Jr. in the no. 1 or 2 spot in the surveys conducted by both Pulse Asia Inc. and Social Weather Stations (SWS) while the President lags in the third or fourth slot.

Later in the day, the President also stood as one of the principal sponsors in the wedding of House Majority leader Neptali Gonzales, Jr. and Channel 5 reporter Quenie Pajati held at the Ellinwood Church in Malate.

Extraditable Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez was also one of the sponsors in the wedding but he did not show up.

Last night, the President also caused a monstrous traffic jam when she motored to Parañaque City to attend a Christmas gathering of the El Shaddai religious community, headed by Catholic evangelist Mike Velarde.