AFTER three days of silence, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde confirmed that President Arroyo indeed spent the weekend in Cartagena, Colombia.
He said it was just a “technical stopover” before proceeding for her state visit to Brazil coming from Japan.
“Hindi iyon actually side trip. Parang stopover dahil alam ninyo napakalayo kasi nitong Brazil at may teknikal na pangangailangan iyung piloto at iyung eroplano. Hindi puwedeng tumuloy-tuloy, so nag-stop-over noong weekend sa siyudad ng Cartagena (It’s not a side trip but a stopover. As you know, Brazil is far and the pilot and plane have technical requirements. The aircraft can’t fly directly to Brazil so they made a stopover in Cartagena over the weekend),” he said.
Remonde said Arroyo and and her husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, took the opportunity to visit businessman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala and his family, who had invited the Arroyos to their house in Cartagena.They arrived afternoon of June 20 and left morning of June 22.
Malaya quoted an opposition wag saying that “if Remonde can sell this, he could sell even Quezon Bridge.”
A source in the Department of Foreign Affairs said although they learned about the Cartagena trip the day before, it found out later that the trip was arranged even before the presidential party left Manila through Colombia’s honorary consul Stella Marquez-Araneta.
Malacañang said from Japan, Arroyo flew to Los Angeles last June 20 to meet the Filipino community after before going to Calombia.
Malaya said the website www.timeanddate.com estimated the distance between Los Angeles and Recife City in Pernambuco, Brazil at about 5,355 nautical miles (9,918 kilometers).
The distance between LA and Cartagena in Colombia is 2,743 nautical miles (5,079 kilometers) while Cartagena to Recife City is 2,672 nautical miles (4,949 kilometers).
The Luftgrop website’s flight calculator estimated that it takes 13 hours and 11 minutes non-stop to fly from Los Angeles to Sao Paolo in Brazil. There was no estimated flight time from LA to Recife City.
The website showed the travel time between LA and Cartagena (5,060 kms) at about six hours and 55 minutes, about one-half of the non-stop flying time between Manila and Los Angeles. Travel between Cartagena and Sao Paolo is about six hours and 44 minutes (4,290 kilometers).
Arroyo used an Airbus 340, the same type used by Philippine Airlines which flies non-stop from Vancouver to Manila in about 13 hours.