President Gloria M. Arroyo, like the "scorpion" she has at times been compared with, will fight back with venom and vile till she steps down in 2010.

It is indeed hard to fight someone who sometime in 2003 thought she (GMA) heard God asking her to run for "re-election" in 2004, after vowing not to run because she was the source of "national division" one year earlier.

GMA, the longest staying president after the Dictator Ferdinand Marcos, has tasted power the longest and all who have had power will swear its taste is not only delicious, but is also addictive.

And no matter how many bombshells have tattered the flag of the Palace - from Garci to ZTE - GMA has said "A president can be as strong as she wants to be…" "Let their ambitions wait till 2010…" and "I am the president of this country - and no other."

(Just yesterday). Brave words.

This new image of a fighting president - was designed by her spin masters - after the Filipino people were unmoved by her sad Mater Dolorosa look in saying "I am sorry" over the Garcillano phone conversations.

But the hidden truth is that GMA is deathly scared, paranoid even, over the many shadows seemingly haunting her four walls surrounding the Palace that she will not do another Erap who "contractually resigned from office" by waving goodbye to the Palace across the Pasig River. She has to display granite strength is public - almost taunting the public with quotes like "I sleep seven hours a night" to show emotional stability amid the raging fire that is burning down the nation is not affecting her much.

Resigning, per GMA, would only mean a host of legal cases - from corruption to human rights violations - under the aegis of a new regime that will take over the Palace - and she might get the unfortunate conviction that his predecessor Erap did.

For as senator Juan Ponce Enrile (who definitely knows what power means, having been Marcos' Martial Law lieutenant) had said: "Give up power and you're a dead (wo)man."

There are insinuations GMA will defend the Palace to her last dying breath till 2010 and then carry out an impending exile or migration to a European country (allegedly) Portugal where there is no extradition treaty with the Philippines. Thus, in that country, she and her family will allegedly be beyond the clutches of the law after her term expires.

The seemingly new over-confidence of the president also emanates from two vantage points.

First, GMA has huge control of the House of Representatives, the institution wherefrom all impeachment proceedings would have to be initiated from. The House needs 80 signatories to initiate an impeachment bid for relaying to an anti-GMA senate and that number may not be there yet today.

Deftly, she and her allies had deposed a potential trouble-maker in former speaker Jose De Venecia whose son Joey had spoken vehemently against "corruption in high places" where a P6.5-billion bribe is allegedly involved. By perks and envelopmental or bag-full of money persuasion, administration solons will chorus in blended voices (still) every time the Baton Woman in the Palace even but slightly moves her hand in her desired musical direction.

With Congress under lock and key, only the Military remains to be the other component left that can effect changes simply by withdrawing allegiance to the established military chain of command where the president is the commander-in-chief.

The problem is that the Military exemplified by the "Unity Walk" at EDA yesterday had vowed to stand by the Constitution and protect the democratic institutions in the country.

Easily, the Military can take over the government and the institutions we hold dear with just the use of four battalions. It has more than that number inside Manila today.

With a mere nodding of heads, Chief of Staff General Hermogenes Esperon and (PMA classmate) PNP Chief Sonny Razon can do a blitzkrieg take over of the Congress, the Palace, the Supreme Court and media. But the Military is not about to do that either.

The Military believes, sincerely or not, that a forced takeover of Government by the Military will further weaken the democratic institutions which they hope should instead be functioning - not become dysfunctional entities.

That is the second other anchor (military support) of GMA's strident - event arrogant - confidence in telling her "noise critics" to shut up while she, the Economist focuses her "laser beam on the economy" which staged a 7% GDP growth, the highest in many years. This time, unlike EDSA I and II, GMA thinks that the Military will not intervene in this political imbroglio.

On the other hand, there is a significant portion of the Philippine populace, religious as we all are, that remain to be petrified into inaction unless there is a directive from a church hierarchy or a charismatic Church leader like a Cardinal Sin or the CBCP.

Even that may no longer be necessary today, it seems.

We are all gifted with a sense of right and wrong and we have direct access to God, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints to solicit grace for divine discernment as to what action to do in the face of the obvious dishonesty, cover-up and power-plays going on in the country today.

The Filipinos may not need to wait for the Military and the Church leaders to speak for their behalf in matters of grave national importance and are pivotal for their children's future.

And perhaps this can be drawn quietly from the message of whistle-blower Engr. Jun Lozada in his speech at the "Mass for Truth" at the Redemptorist Church in Baclaran last Monday in celebration of the EDSA People Power I in 1986.

An acknowledged fan of national hero Dr Jose Rizal, Lozada said in so many words that there are already seeds of heroism existing in each of our hearts that we can draw from. We can be the heroes we are looking from; we can be the change that we want.

The national debate raging today is known nationally - from the manicured socialites and Armani-clad executives to the lowly tricycle drivers and even house-helps and standbys in barbershops.

This is one opportunity to behave like a true-blue Filipino citizen - to listen and understand the issues and having done so, act according to one's conscience and bring about changes in his life.

Nobody can dictate what action you will take: educate oneself, draw comic caricatures of the national malady, join protest, investigate anomalies in your localities, call and write to media, pray for the nation, demand pork barrel listing from your congressman, scrutinize budgets of your governments and protect the environment, etc. The important thing is to act.

As they say: Dissent without action is indeed consent.

Take it from Barrack Obama, the leading Democrat presidential candidate in American, the first African-American Negro to potentially become the first black president of the USA who said: "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we have been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

Are you ready? Shalom.