EDITORIAL - The helmsman must suffer no visual or analytical impairment

Either President Arroyo cannot see clearly or she has difficulty appreciating what she sees. Whatever it is, it is very dangerous for the country to have someone at the helm suffering from any state of visual or analytical impairment.

This is not to say that a change of leadership in midstream is being suggested, only that it would be better for Mrs. Arroyo, and for the rest of the country, if she starts learning how to see and appreciate things for what they really are.

Now, whether what she said recently is any indication of her willingness to start learning, we may never know. But when she started blaming bad news for the current instability in the country, we cannot help but feel she is missing the whole point.

Of course, President Arroyo wisely stopped short of outrightly blaming the media for being the harbingers of so much "bad news." She just can't afford to add one more name to her growing list of enemies. But we can smell her breath from where we are and it smelled sour.

The slew of bad news that is currently sweeping the country is not a manufactured gimmick sprung by some devious mind out to discredit the Arroyo administration. News springs to life of its own accord. Like s..t, news simply happens. You do not blame anyone for it.

News, of course, can be twisted, embellished or otherwise tampered with. But all these have to wait until the news breaks. There is nothing to twist, embellish or otherwise tamper with if there is no news. And for the information of Arroyo, no news is even far worse than bad news.

On the other hand, why would Arroyo be so upset about all the bad news when the truth of the matter is, her fingerprints are all over the place. There is probably no piece of bad news today that does not, somehow, trace its way back to the doorstep of Arroyo.

Fairly or unfairly, Arroyo just seems to be the core from which swirl all the current bad news that is making the country dizzy. And the unfortunate thing about it is that she is utterly at loss on how to steer clear of controversy. She has no centrifugal force to be free.

That is why we agree with many in the business sector who say that Arroyo lacks the sense of direction to steer the country clear of the storm. Such an infirmity is not without remedy. Sadly, Arroyo has never been known to subordinate her own interests to that of the country.