GMA on dinner with Leni: Bicol politics on menu

MANILA, Philippines — Former president and now House Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday downplayed speculation that she may have joined the political opposition after pictures of her dinner with former vice president Leni Robredo circulated online.

“I recently had a social dinner with former VP Robredo and mutual friends from Bicol. We chatted about Bicol politics,” Arroyo said in a short statement sent to reporters over the weekend.

Arroyo was referring to her Sept. 6 meeting with Robredo — former chair of the opposition Liberal Party — at a party organized by friends in Alabang.

In the same week, Sen. Bong Go posted on Facebook a photo of Arroyo with former president Rodrigo Duterte and PDP-Laban stalwarts in San Juan City.

Arroyo and the Vice President are close political allies, as shown last May when Arroyo was demoted from her senior deputy speaker role following allegations of an ouster plot against Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, first cousin of Marcos. Duterte left the ruling party, Lakas-CMD, after Arroyo’s demotion.

As for Robredo, she won against Marcos in the 2016 elections and lost the 2022 presidential race. After the elections, she launched the volunteer network Angat Buhay Foundation.

Following Arroyo and Robredo’s meeting, Duterte posted on Instagram that she is “unbothered.”

“The unbothered with the upset. Untangle, unsettle, untie,” Duterte wrote in a caption in her self-portrait photo Saturday night.