MANILA, Philippines -- Some 300 members of various overseas Filipino groups in Hong Kong picketed the hotel where President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her entourage were billeted on Sunday.

The protesters, led by the United Filipinos in Hong Kong migrant workers’ coalition, gathered in the morning in front of the Island Shangri-La Hotel. They unfurled placards and shouted slogans denouncing the President for supporting Charter change and spending taxpayers’ money in her numerous foreign trips.

They shouted "Layas!" ("Leave!") to her to mean that she must leave Hong Kong as well as her position.

Other protesters came from the Hong Kong chapters of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Bangon Pilipinas Movement, Jesus is Lord, Gabriela, Citizens’ Battle Against Crime, Filipino Migrant Workers Union, United Pangasinan in Hong Kong, Cordillera Alliance and Abra Tinguian Ilocano Society.

Unifil chair Dolores Balladares, in a statement sent to the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net), twitted the Chief Executive’s “working visit” which, according to a Palace statement, was in response to the “clamor” of overseas Filipino workers in the Chinese territory for a dialogue with her.

“If there was indeed a clamor, why was her trip to Hong Kong kept a secret up to the last minute? If indeed there was a clamor for a dialogue, why was there no announcement for one from the Philippine consulate? No organization here knew of her arrival. It is so obvious that this trip is just one of her numerous junket trips that serve no other interest but hers alone,” she said.

Balladares, said that as of Saturday night, most of the Filipino community still had no idea that the President and her party were in Hong Kong for a side trip.

Unifil, she said, later obtained the information that the President and her party dropped by Hong Kong to celebrate her husband’s 63rd birthday. About 70 congressmen and their spouses attended the gathering, Balladares said.

“Such a squander of the people’s money is abominable considering that the Filipinos are reeling from a worsening economic crunch. This has just again shown Ms Arroyo’s shameless disregard to the people’s condition in the same way she disregards people’s demands in order to push her own agenda,” she said.

Meanwhile, Norman Uy Carnay, country information officer of Bayan-Hong Kong, claimed that the side trip was Arroyo’s way to give more time for the furor over the railroading of a House of Representatives resolution calling for a constituent assembly to amend the Charter to die down.

“Con-Ass [constituent assembly] is Ms Arroyo’s key to stay in office and keep the long list of charges of fraud, plunder and human rights violations at bay. The despicable way of skirting the issue, at the expense of public funds, is her trademark,” he added.

Carnay also hit the reported plan of President to meet with a Filipino domestic helper, Mildred Perez, who gained recognition when she recently returned a bag with HK$350,000 she found in a trash bin, to its owner.

“The Philippine’s queen of lies, fraud and deceitful schemes has no business conferring honors to honest, toiling OFWs,” he said.