NEWSFLASH

GMA SAYS SHE GETS 'PLENTY' OF SEX

MANILA, October 10, 2002 (STAR) President Arroyo may have responded too frankly to a reporter’s question about an intimate matter between her and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo.

Burdens of national and international affairs notwithstanding, Mrs. Arroyo naughtily told the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) yesterday that she has an active sex life.

Asked whether she still had sex, the President — a devout Catholic — shot back: "Plenty." Then she broke into nervous laughter at her own reply.

The diminutive President appeared stunned by the piercing question, but blushed immediately after uttering the one-word reply which made the audience, including diplomats and officials of the Philippine National Police led by Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., either gasp or guffaw.

Some of them shook their heads in what appeared to be an apparent display of disgust over the rather indiscreet question of a female reporter.

The reporter tried to gingerly phrase her question on the presidential sex life, citing that a lot of women were "dying to ask this question" because unlike former President Corazon Aquino, she is not a widow.

"That’s gonna be the headline," the President grinned and then appealed to FOCAP members and local journalists present at the forum held in a Makati hotel to focus their reports on her statements on Manila’s foreign policy.

In her remarks, the President reiterated her eight-point foreign policy in discussing the Philippine position as the United States gears to attack Iraq.

"My father always used to tell me that for a public servant, priority should be God first, then country and family should be last," Mrs. Arroyo also said. The late President Diosdado Macapagal was her father.

As to whether she was able to spend time with Mr. Arroyo, the President said, "Well, the husband is included in the family."

Mrs. Arroyo said public office requires a lot of sacrifices and that she decided to enter politics only after her three children, Mikey, Luli and Dato, were old enough to fend for themselves. She said she tried to reserve Sundays for the family.

When asked how she is able to look young despite being 55, the President said, "I have no beauty secret. I have never been overly concerned about my looks. Maybe God gave me the genes to look young."

She noted that her father looked younger than his age. "It must be the genes and maybe that’s God’s message, just live with what I have and try not to be overly concerned about that (looks)."

The President said she has assistants to help her choose her clothes and a full-time hair-dresser. "I don’t have to bother," she added.

The President had to cancel her appointment with FOCAP last week, citing pharyngitis.

Reached by The STAR through text message for comment on the "sex" question at the FOCAP forum, Mr. Arroyo wrote jokingly, "Actually, we’re getting old. So it’s only three times a day!"

Mr. Arroyo, 56, was confined at St. Luke’s Medical Center and doctors had just completed yesterday a battery of tests to assess the extent of the effects of a hairline fracture of the ribs which was the result of a surfing accident.

Mr. Arroyo joked about Viagra, a sex potency drug.