is time on arroyo's side?

TIME IS EITHER AN ENEMY OR AN ALLY of the embattled government of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Although the economy has enjoyed unprecedented growth during the past 30 years, hitting 7.3 percent in 2007, the biggest expansion took place during the past two years, breaking past the 4.6 percent average growth rate in 2001-2006. This article does not intend to establish the relationship between economic growth and political turbulence. A recent study by the Asian Development Bank examined the link between corruption and political instability and decline in investment growth. The paper found that governance concerns are one of the “critical constraints to private investment and growth in the Philippines.” Basically the question boils down to this: has “political noise” become less of a force in generating political instability and reached its peak? According to this argument, “people are tired of politics of division and despair.” This argument ignores the question, voiced by people outside Malacañang, which Palace insiders do not want to ask or to face: Are people not getting tired of the President? The public gets tired of congressional investigations but they get tired, too, of the reproduction of scandals at every congressional investigation. The argument that people are “tired” of scandals rests on flimsy grounds. Are more and more people not getting tired of President Arroyo rather than of the scandals?