MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo wore a magenta terno by Filipino designer Inno Sotto for her last State of the Nation Address (SONA) yesterday.
Mrs. Arroyo’s eldest son Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo was clad in a Maxi Cinco barong made of abaca.
“It was a gift from the designer,” he said in a phone interview.
His wife Maria Angela Montenegro-Arroyo donned a gown by Paul Cabral.
The Pampanga solon said his wife’s gown was made of piña fabric and he described it as “simple but elegant.”
Mrs. Arroyo’s other son Camarines Sur Rep. Disdado “Dato” Arroyo and his wife Ma. Victoria “Kakai” Arroyo also wore Cabral creations.
Dato was clad in a traditional barong tagalog while Kakai wore a yellow Filipiniana gown.
In 2008, Mrs. Arroyo wore a fuchsia Maria Clara gown by JC Buendia and Joanne Andrada.
Buendia and Andrada have designed most of Mrs. Arroyo’s outfits since 2001.
Her gown made of native silk from Misamis Oriental in Mindanao and pineapple fiber from Aklan in the Visayas, cost P600 per yard or P3,000 for the whole six yards, excluding labor cost.
Meantime, four female senators tried to outdo each other yesterday during the opening of the third regular session of the 14th Congress.
Sen. Loren Legarda donned a Mindanao-inspired “hot pink” gown designed by Paul Cabral.
The bareback Legarda turned the heads of colleagues and curious onlookers during the opening of session yesterday.
She said the beads sewn on her gown came from the souvenirs she brought home from her trips to Mindanao.
An advocate of Philippine-made gowns and dresses, Legarda wore the gown fashionably and did a full turn for reporters to show her bare back after a brief interview.
Sen. Pia Cayetano was elegant in a modern terno designed by Mia Urquico. She wore a black and white ruffled gown, also revealing a bare back.
She said it was a statement that everything should be in black and white, nothing in the middle.
“I am wearing a black and white gown. That is my statement – be black or white on issues. No gray. No in-between,” Cayetano twitted from her account.
Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago was in a simple two-piece beige gown. “This is recycled,” said Santiago of her 10-year-old gown.
Sen. Jamby Madrigal wore a Patis Tesoro two-piece apple green gown, with a beige Maria Clara blazer.
“This is a modified Maria Clara. Green is my campaign color. The SONA is already doom, so I wanted green to light up the occasion,” Madrigal said.
Legarda, Cayetano and Santiago attended the SONA while Madrigal said she joined the people protesting in the streets.
Aside from the three female legislators, those who attended the SONA at the Batasang Pambansa complex in Quezon City were Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senators Rodolfo Biazon, Manuel “Lito” Lapid, Edgardo Angara, Ramon Revilla Jr., Gregorio Honasan II and Richard Gordon.
Those who did not attend the SONA were Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Senate Pro Tempore Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, and Senators Manuel Roxas II, Benigno Aquino III, Panfilo Lacson, Manuel Villar, Joker Arroyo, Francis Pangilinan, Alan Peter Cayetano, Francis Escudero, and Madrigal.
Assistant minority leader and Gabriela Rep. Liza Maza appeared in a beaded gown, hand-painted with the President’s image and embroidered with the word con-ass.
Below the President’s image were people strangled by its thread.
Maza’s gown, handpainted for free by social realism artist Boy Dominguez, is made of white “katsa” or the cloth used for flour sacks.
Maza said her gown was meant to show the real state of the nation.
“It depicts the reality of Arroyo’s unrelenting efforts for term extension through con-ass being pushed by her allies in the House of Representatives,” Maza said in a statement.
Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia and STAR columnist Mons Romulo-Tantoco wore gowns by Cary Santiago while Rep. Nikki Teodoro wore a Rajo Laurel gown. –With Christina Mendez
By Helen Flores
The Philippine Star
Posted 12:00 AM 07/28/2009
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