I doubt Arroyo will last 6 years in office

Especially when we hear reports like this one:

EXECUTIVE Order 367 creating the Office of External Affairs is another indication that President Arroyo lives in a world so remote from majority of the Filipino people.

More than five million working-age Filipinos have no jobs and one out of seven Filipino households experience hunger. People are angry at the corruption in all levels of the government. Then she creates the Office of External Affairs to "liaison with constituency groups and build grassroots support for the government's agenda and legislation." It will have an initial budget of P100 million.

The OEA will have offices all over the country and will have supervision over the presidential advisers and assistants for regional concerns. Fernando Mahusay has been named presidential assistant for Region 9, clearly a political payback for having "rescued" his brother, Eugenio or Udong, from the custody of Sen. Panfilo Lacson, to stop him from creating more damage to Mike Arroyo in the Jose Pidal exposé.

The creation of OEA is a slap in the face of all other departments especially the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the National Anti-Poverty Commission.

The OEA will also have a "representative ...in the United States with the rank of Attaché." Arroyo said "I may even need two (attachés) because we have three-and-a-half million Filipinos there. We will need one in the East Coast, one in the West Coast.

Has Arroyo forgotten that the Department of Foreign Affairs has an embassy (in Washington D.C.) and five consulates (Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco) in the United States?

If we follow her line of reasoning that OEA representatives are needed in places where there is a big number of Filipinos, she would have to send OEA representatives all over the world. Just like the DFA with 85 embassies and consulates all over the world.

Our corps of foreign service officers manning Philippine embassies and consulates have the responsibility "to protect the interest of Filipinos nationals abroad" by providing them the necessary services and assistance. What would be the functions of OEA representatives that are not being exercised by DFA personnel? And wasn't Vice President Noli de Castro appointed presidential adviser for Overseas Filipino Workers? And how about Roy Cimatu as her special envoy to the Middle East?

Perplexed by GMA's moves like this creation of OEA amidst a fiscal crisis and by the quality of her appointments like Mahusay, Jun Santiago (presidential adviser on revenue enhancement), and Ramon Revilla (chairman of Public Estates Authority), a friend said, "Mapapabilis ang bagsak ni Arroyo nito (This will hasten Arroyo's fall)."

Arroyo's credibility has reached rock-bottom. There is widespread apathy among the masses. Reports like this, creation of another dumping ground for political stooges no longer surprise the people.