On the FG's "voluntary" exile

These questions crop up on First Gentleman (FG) Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo's all-of-a-sudden leaving the country, viz: Did the FG voluntarily banish himself? For what reason or why did he do so? What effect(s) may ensue as a result of his self-exile on GMA's present problem?

On the first query, at the risk of being wrong and be vilified, one ventures a chancy guess based on intuitive gut feelings that the FG was cornered to "volunteer" to banish himself. It's gotten to be like some war movies when a unit commander of a combat patrol says to foot soldiers: "Sergeant X and Private Y, you're point men, ok?"

Perceiving Mike Arroyo to be a softie despite his expanded bulk and, knowing GMA as an iron lady in pint-sized build, one isn't taken in by GMA's: "My husband has volunteered to go abroad… to remove himself from any situation which will cast doubts on my presidency". Of course, the FG fervently professed that his "self-imposed" exile was all for the love of his wife. Shades of many Mills and Boon romantic plots.

Pursuing such premise, the second query may be fielded that the FG's departure could be a frantic way to deflect the arrows of GMA's critics, now getting much bolder for GMA's blood after she had made a clean breast of her "lapse of judgment". Or, as GMA herself has explained, to "avoid conflict of interest issues" that may undermine her now beleaguered presidency.

But then, one may ask: Why would the FG be made the goat for GMA's "lapse of judgment"? Moreover, even in the "jueteng" expose by that slick self-confessed bagwoman Sandra Cam, and the other equally slick squealers of Arch. Oscar Cruz, has there been a "jueteng" connection to the FG himself?

Could it be that the FG might have been - note the supposition - the one originally egging on GMA to call "dear Garci", as a suggestion "to protect her votes"? If so, as a prime mover of the "lapse of judgment", he now feels guilty; and, his exile of penance could be just his act of contrition?

Others advance that the FG had to leave on demand of some GMA's cabinet as "damage control" measure for his negative ubiquitous role.

Coming to the third question, one surmises that one adverse effect of the FG's flight - to include later Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo, who's directly implicated by Cam as a "jueteng" beneficiary - is the perceived admission of guilt of some wrongdoings.

In fact, instead of expressing sympathy for the FG's plight, the militants and political foes, led by the FG's "Jose Pidal" nemesis in Senator Lacson, and now joined in by the screaming waspish widow of FPJ, have intensified their "Gloria resign" demands.

Moreover, the perception that the FG as alleged smooth operator behind shady government deals and juicy appointments aggravated GMA's negative 33 rating. The FG's -44 percent SWS rating as of March, 2005 is worse than that of GMA.

Dabbling in health care and sports through a foundation has not dissipated the people's negative impression about the FG, no thanks to the "Jose Pidal" scandal. Probably, Filipinos after all, have long memories to correlate the FG's foundation with the similar bigger money trail giving rise to the lung center, the heart center, the kidney center, the cultural center, PICC, etc., but no accounting or liquidation being made of the bulk of multi-millions reportedly laundered that ended in foreign deposits.

In recap, the FG's self-imposed Napoleonic Elba, appears to be illusory to boost GMA's shaky hold on the ship of state. Instead, it could be another lapse of judgment, all things considered.