PHILIPPINE President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who faced calls for her ouster even as she gave her eighth state of the nation address, is doomed to spend her remaining two years as a lame duck leader, analysts said. “That's the problem for the next two years, people, including her allies, have perceived that the president is certain to step down in 2010,” said Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms. “They are already making plans to get to know the next president.” The Philippines' most influential pollster said earlier this month that Arroyo, 61, was the Philippines' least popular leader since dictator Ferdinand Marcos was ousted in 1986. Some analysts had believed this could jolt her into announcing major policy shifts in Monday's annual state of the nation address. But although the 47-minute speech drew repeated applause from congressional allies, there was little to signal any change of direction. “She failed to specifically identify policies and programmes in either the short or the long term that are going to benefit the country,” said Pete Troilo at the Pacific Strategies and Assessments risk consultancy. “I think uninspiring is a very accurate way to describe it.” Arroyo blamed a slowdown in growth and high inflation on global ill winds, but beyond reiterating subsidies targeted at the poor, offered little in answer. She continued to back the powerful Catholic Church on not promoting artificial birth control and also highlighted a territorial deal with the country's largest Muslim rebel group, which was hastily patched up on Sunday night in time for Monday's speech. All talk, no action “It was full of rhetoric and no action at all,” said Benito Lim, political science professor at the Ateneo de Manila University. “Half-way through, I was almost asleep.” In Manila, over 3,000 people demonstrated outside Congress with banners and effigies of the former economist, who is distrusted because of lingering allegations of vote fraud and corruption. Analysts said Arroyo's impending departure from the presidency – the constitution bars her from seeking another term – had left her with little room for manoeuvre. “You already have a lameduck president and hard political choices will not be part of governance policies. Because that will take political will,” Casiple from the Institute for Political and Electoral Reforms said. “What policy she follows she will do in the context of her political survival, that's the unfortunate thing about it.” Arroyo, then vice-president, was riding high in opinion polls when she took power in 2001 after the ouster of her boss, Joseph Estrada, on charges of corruption. She had the support of the church and the military, and of big business and the middle class. But by 2004, when she contested and won presidential elections for a six-year term, much of this had dissipated. Charges that she cheated in the elections were never quite laid to rest. A wave of corruption scandals then swamped her administration, but she managed to stave off three impeachment attempts in the last three years because of allies in Congress and the steadfast support of the military. The country's powerful bishops do not seem as supportive as they were in 2001, but have not openly come out against her. But her popularity has plunged as high food and fuel prices hit the Philippines this year. The Social Weather Stations agency said in its much-watched June quarterly survey that 60 percent of the people were dissatisfied with her, the worst showing for the country's last four presidents. Analysts say rivals are not interested in ousting her now since the elections are not too far away, and in any case it would be difficult to do so because she has packed the House of Representatives with her supporters. The public mood, analysts say, is of resignation. Arroyo referred to her unpopularity during her speech, saying it came about because of tough choices she had made, like raising taxes to improve government finances. “My responsibility as president is to take care to solve the problems we are facing now and to provide a vision and direction for how our nation should advance in the future,” she said. But she has come in for criticism that matches the opprobrium heaped on Estrada in his last few weeks in power. “Since 2001, she has told the following truths in her state of the nation addresses,” columnist Conrad de Quiros wrote in Monday's Philippine Daily Inquirer. He followed that comment with almost three columns of blank space. – Reuters __
