She, together with alter-superegos in her Cabinet, political cohorts and military and police minions, have smeared the Philippine image as the oldest democracy in Asia during her seven long years as an illegitimate president of this country.

In the eyes of millions of Filipinos and other peoples all over the world, Gloria Arroyo is not only the "most unpopular" but the "most corrupt" president ever, after Marcos the "authoritarian ruler," Cory the "elite restorationist," FVR the "military reformer," and Erap the "populist leader."

The latest big black-eye dealt Gloria Arroyo came from the world’s leading journal on the theory and practice of democracy. In the January 2008 issue of "Journal of Democracy," Prof. Paul D. Hutchcroft of the University of Wisconsin-Madison boldly wrote in his critique that Arroyo is responsible for "sinking Asia’s oldest democracy into a morass of corruption and scandals."

The American savant pointed out that she found political legitimacy elusive ever since her assumption of office through "extraordinary means." Obviously, as we know, he was alluding to that time in 2001 when she, in conspiracy with other overly-ambitious political cronies, opportunistic businessmen and military generals, and the elite in high society that feared a populist president in Joseph "Erap" Estrada, ousted Estrada from the presidency.

Most accurately, Hutchcroft traced the history of how, under Gloria Arroyo’s watch of over seven years in Malacañang, she effectively wielded substantial powers of the presidency to keep herself in office, and in the process she exhibited no qualms about further undermining this country’s already weak democratic institutions. And he lamented the fact that this country has suffered one political crisis after another that increasingly imperiled its longstanding democratic structures.

Not surprisingly, the stinging critique by the American political scientist came quite close on the heels of another rebuke of Gloria Arroyo by the Freedom House. The influential US-based democracy watchdog downgraded the Philippines from the list of the world’s working and fully-free democracies. It took notice of the over 800 unsolved and unexplained political killings of lawyers, priests, activists, and journalists, all which have been attributed to Arroyo’s military and police agencies. This, too, was mentioned in the "Journal of democracy."

Oh, by the way, these American watchdogs of democracy are not the only ones who have seen and written about the grave crimes of Gloria Arroyo and political and military minions who have undermined democratic rights and institutions. Filipinos, too, have not just stand silent about the innumerable grievous wrongdoings in her government.

Just the other day, over a hundred journalists, both from the print and broadcast media, called the attention of the Supreme Court to the blatant violations of civil liberties of the people, including freedom of information and freedom of the press.

They petitioned the tribunal to stop the repeated threats and attempts of Arroyo’s storm troopers-like police and military men to "harass and intimidate" journalists.

"We are taking the legal high road," their spokesperson told the highest magistrates of the land, "because we believe we either have press freedom or we don’t. There is no middle ground!

"Our objective is not just relief, but for the Supreme Court to help correct the current situation where, we believe, press freedom is being constantly redefined and constrained" by the Arroyo administration."

Yes, indeed, as the "Journal of Democracy" very well put it, these assaults on the media members and killings of journalists "must be viewed as an attack on one of the major bulwarks of Philippine democracy."