GMA inaugural in Cebu or Iloilo?

Administration advisers are taking seriously suggestions that apparent President-elect Gloria Arroyo hold her inauguration in a Visayan city to signal a possible shift to federalism within the next six years.

One of the officials, who asked not to be named, told The STAR yesterday that the Palace has noted this proposed change of venue for the inaugural ceremonies.

The sites being considered are Cebu City, as pushed by re-electionist Mayor Tommy Osmeña, and Iloilo, which is preferred by Senate President Franklin Drilon, an Ilongo.

"It would be a good signal for federalism that the President supports," the Palace official said.

Exit polls indicated that the Visayas went for Mrs. Arroyo in the May 10 elections.

The President is supporting proposals to shift the form of government to a federal parliamentary system, which she said best suits an archipelagic nation.

The administration official said it would not be the first time that inaugural rites for the president would depart from the traditional venue, the Quirino Grandstand in Manila’s Rizal Park.

The official noted that deposed President Joseph Estrada held his oath-taking at the Barasoain Church in Malolos City in Bulacan, where the first elected president of the Philippine Republic was installed.

Estrada, however, had the traditional inaugural ceremonies capped by his inaugural speech at Rizal Park, where diplomats and other guests were brought by land or helicopter from Malolos.

But Palace officials like Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye and Press Secretary Milton Alingod have refused to comment on the possible inaugural plans of Mrs. Arroyo at this stage, even as they noted that she is leading in both the Commission on Elections and National Movement for Free Elections counts.

The President herself vehemently refused to even talk about such things at this time lest she again be accused of being "presumptuous."