Arroyo wants to be exact opposite of Estrada — Montemayor

CLAVERIA, Misamis Oriental – What, another drunken President? No, Mrs. Arroyo doesn’t go to work intoxicated with alcohol, but with a determination to be everything her predecessor never was.

"She makes sure that everything we do must douse the people‘s fear that she could turn out to be just like former President Estrada," said Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor last Saturday in this town where he launched a corn-feedstock center.

"Our President is really drunk with her all-consuming obsession to be different from her predecessor," Montemayor explained. "It means work, work, work and she is really a workaholic President."

He said Mrs. Arroyo appears like she is haunted by what many people thought before she rose to Malacañang on the back of People Power II: That, surrounded by big businessmen and cronies, she could turn out to be as ineffective and corrupt as the ousted leader.

"It’s a different story now since all of us in government are being driven to the limits of our energy," he said. "We are often on the brink of collapsing because of the tough pace the President has imposed on us."

Montemayor surmised that had former President Estrada adopted the same work ethic, he would have never felt the need for taking Xenical. The disgraced leader was known to be an avid consumer of the "wonder" drug as he fought his battle against the bulge.

"I have lost more than five pounds since I became agriculture secretary," he quipped, "I believe the hectic pace in which we do our jobs has taken its toll not only on me, but on everybody around the President."

Montemayor said Mrs. Arroyo would often call members of her Cabinet in the wee hours of the morning for advice, indicating that "she usually wrestled with the problems of the state, not with Johnnie Walker Blue nor women as her predecessor did."

"One time, I just got home around five o’clock in the morning from an out-of-town assignment and suddenly, my cell phone rang, it was the President," he revealed. "She just asked me to think about the agricultural program she was trying to promote."

As if to emphasize the working habit that he has acquired in the few weeks that he has been with the Arroyo administration, Montemayor graced the inauguration here of the corn feed-stock center without any fanfare. No ribbon-cutting ceremony. No luncheon for everybody.

Montemayor just came here, along with some people from the Department of Agriculture and the media, to check out the corn feed-stock center. He delivered a little pep talk to the townsfolk, and flew off to Kidapawan, North Cotabato where he later inaugurated another project.

The corn feed-stock here in Claveria, Misamis, Oriental is expected to beef up the corn industry here since the facility would help fasttrack the drying of corn to reach the market faster than it did before.