WELL, well, well. Bubon, bubon, bubon.

It looks like blackeyed Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will stay for good after she was, well, given a new lease on life by the support extended by former Fidel V. Ramos and his ilk, by the unsteady stance of the Catholic Bishops Conference, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Cebu local leadership, the defeaning silence of the so-called civil society, the lick-my-ass assurance given by the traditional lapdogs of Malacanang known as the Leagues of Provinces and Cities, and the disturbing apathy by majority of Filipinos despite the SWS survey that says that such number of Filipinos distrust the President after her admission that she was the woman in the obnoxious “Garci tapes”.

The President’s good fortune, if one may call it, ironically hinges on her vice-president’s ho-hum acceptability as worthy successor. It also hinged ironically on the weak legs of the so-called united opposition whose standard bearers wear the wristbands of another disgraced former President whose moral authority is as pathetic as the barbed wires that ring his detention cell.

Last Tuesday’s salvo by Bro. Edie Villanueva’s Jesus is Lord Movement that filled up Makati’s Paseo de Roxas proved to be more threatening to GMA’s fate than the sparse crowd that the Binay-Ejercito-Escudero-led rally mustered a few days ago. The pro-Erap opposition line may have a celebrity ring to their name but its origins are very humdrum, with inarticulate movie stars and political has-beens as major characters. The President’s luck also hinges ironically on the pestering rantings by the so-called militant left who could’t think of any other novel strategy but to go out into the streets, disturb traffic and burn effigies.

So what else is new? Susan Roces? She should have been a forceful icon and a persuasive one at that but she defaulted with her rancourous opprobrious at Club Filipino that banished the strong-under-pressure, independent-minded Susan Roces that everyone knew.

Still, many held off their disgust at GMA when vice-presidential loser Loren Legarda suddenly came into the picture with her P4 million deposit to speed up her election protest against rival VP Noli de Castro so that she would become the rightful successor once Gloria exits as a disgraced president. Such haste and thick-faced move was uncharacteristically un-Filipina, Loren should have been wiser to know.

It looks like Madam Gloria is smart and therefore capable to survive because many of her foes are hopelessly hairbrained and stupid.

As an overly-ambitious woman, Loren, to her ignorance or lack of good sense and propriety, has exposed her feet of clay, with husband Tony Leviste of Batangas inevitably coming into the mental picture of many who know him as a veteran shrewd politician and a silently-ambitious future First Gentleman that could give disgraced FG Mike Arroyo a run for his money.

Think of Gloria, therefore, as our president for the next 5 years, or until 2010. Can we survive that long? Are we in for another vicious cycle of political chaos and absurdity?