BINMALEY—Pangasinan  mayors were fuming mad when they learned they would not get a chance to meet with President Gloria Arroyo after being asked to be present when she arrived for an assessment of the damage cuased by Typhoon ‘Cosme’.  

Mayor Simplicio Rosario of this town said he and 12 other mayors were invited by the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) ostensibly for a meeting with the President but turned out they were “only made as decorations” for her arrival.

Rosario, who spoke in behalf of the Pangasinan mayors, said they were so disgusted with the outcome because the President was supposed to hear from them.

“It’s unfair to us,” he told The PUNCH.

They arrived around 9:00 a.m. at the Narciso Ramos Sports and Civic Center where the meeting was to take place.

“We love the President that’s why we are here. She should have at least heard us,” he said.

“Had we known that we would be treated this way, we would not have come here,” he said.

The President’s visit here turned out to be a meeting with the National Disaster Coordinating Council and a meeting with the mayors who were isolated in another room, was not in the President’s schedule.

When the NDCC meeting was over, the PMS asked the mayors to come out and shake hands with the President.

It was then that the President, ready to board her chopper, learned about the mayors’ presence and commented, “Nandito pala kayong mga mayors.”

“Just a little respect is all we are asking for,” Rosario said when it became evident that the President was not even informed of their presence earlier.-#

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