EDITORIAL - Fair game

Spare the “Little Lady,” one of several Palace spokespersons said the other day as he appealed to presidential aspirants to go easy on President Arroyo. We don’t know whether the President relishes being referred to as the “Little Lady,” but she must surely agree with the appeal of economic affairs spokesman Gary Olivar for the 2010 presidential aspirants to stop criticizing her so they can look good.

Malacañang will just have to live with the fact that the nation’s highest official is always fair game for critics. Olivar took exception particularly to the portrayal of the forthcoming presidential race as a battle between good and evil, with the administration candidate raising the standard for the forces of evil.

The description of the President as “evil” was first attributed not to the opposition but to Romulo Neri, administrator of the Social Security System. Despite the description, Neri’s subsequent invocation of executive privilege in refusing to disclose President Arroyo’s role in the ZTE scandal has so endeared him to Malacañang that it has refused to enforce his six-month suspension in connection with the botched broadband deal. Such acts give credibility to portrayals of the forthcoming elections as a battle between the forces of darkness and light.

The best foil against such portrayals is to prove the candidates and critics wrong. Those who are projecting the 2010 race as a battle between good and evil have a lot of powerful ammunition, from unresolved corruption and vote-rigging scandals to international studies pointing to corruption as a major deterrent to national competitiveness. Expensive dinners abroad and the President’s unending foreign junkets accompanied by huge retinues of sycophants can only add credibility to critics’ portrayal of the 2010 race.

There are over nine months left in this administration — enough time for the President to prove that she is not the evil woman painted by her critics. Disaffection with her administration surely contributed to the enormous outpouring of public grief when former President Corazon Aquino died. The same disaffection has thrust Cory Aquino’s only son into the presidential race, in response to a national yearning for a return to decency, accountability and integrity in public office. The Little Lady can still address that yearning, and end portrayals of the race as a battle between good and evil.