The political opposition and some pundits are raising hell over President Arroyo’s ten-day state visit to the US. They are saying that the calamity and disaster brought by “Frank” should compel Mrs. Arroyo to cut short her trip, and immediately go back.

She won’t. Knowing Mrs. Arroyo as an activist and observer, she really won’t not because she thinks it is better to be in the US now, but that she really likes to be in the limelight with her master, President Bush. (Never mind if Bush is a lame duck and may well be replaced by a Barack Obama due to his and his party’s growing unpopularity.)

For me, I’d like the President to continue with her trip. She might even stay there longer or even permanently. Certainly, it will be a new height of
pakikiramay if she does so — for Mrs. Arroyo to permanently stay away from the country.

Consider the benefits of this great political sacrifice of living in the US and away from all of us: We may hold presidential and national elections as early as this year to find a replacement. The First Gentleman, Luli, Dato and Mikey should join her too. She may also ask her entire entourage and their families to stay with her. That’s a formula for initial doses of radical and profound changes in the country!

The anti-imperialists would also welcome Mrs. Arroyo’s prolonged or permanent stay in the US. It is a matter of fact — and Mrs. Arroyo admitted it repeatedly in her speeches across the US — that she is known for her loyalty, fealty, puppetry and subservience to the US. Whether on economic, political and diplomatic issues, she’s all for the US. Never mind the Constitution which bans foreign military presence in the country sans a treaty duly ratified by the Senate — the US must be allowed unhampered entry to the Philippines under all sorts of pretenses. Never mind if one of the pretenses — counter-terrorism — has been proven false. Never mind if bombs continue to explode in Mindanao despite heavy US military presence there.

Consider too Arroyo’s parotting of the Bush administration arbitrary labeling of Jose Maria Sison and the CPP-NPA as terrorists after her administration covertly lobbied for it — even if imperiled talks with the communists towards a peaceful resolution to the long-drawn armed conflict.

I’m sick and tired of a president who is mataray for the wrongest but is soft on ethics, corruption and other things important. I am sick and tired of hearing her snap back and shout at people, in a vain attempt to project leadership. In the latest instance, she was screaming her lungs off on an admiral (or commodore?) only to betray the sad fact is that she is thousands of kilometers away from the disaster area where we expect our leaders to be in the first place.

I can cite a gazillion other reasons so please, please, please don’t egg Mrs. Arroyo to come back home.