FROM BEING THE elegantly dressed senator, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo went to being dressed rather frumpily after she was elected vice president in 1998. Perhaps this was a deliberate effort to contrast with then President Joseph Estrada and his love of luxury. After EDSA II in January 2001, although president now, Gloria still looked rather mismatched yet change was soon evident.

By the end of 2001, Gloria had been transformed from the absent-mindedly mismatched vice president into a totally sleek president who wore coordinated outfits in solid colors, with tasteful accessories. She looked more Jackie O now then ever before, with the little pillbox hats she wore in fabric that matched her outfits. It was 1960s style reinvented for the 21st century. Observers couldn’t help but make the obvious parallels between the administration of her late father President Diosdado Macapagal and the Kennedy administration in the US. Gloria was clearly the daughter of the Philippine version of Camelot that had so fascinated the American public with John F. Kennedy and especially with Jacqueline Kennedy.

While this simple yet sophisticated look worked brilliantly on her foreign trips, the president’s image advisers were worried she was alienating the masses back home. Had Gloria become too glossy for the slum dwellers, many of them still supporting Estrada? Worse still, was the president coming across as too mataray in press conferences? Indeed, many observers couldn’t help but notice how impatient and haughty she was with some reporters at press conferences, cutting off some with curt answers and dagger looks.

The president vowed to be less bitchy this New Year, and spent more time on domestic visits to poorer areas, wearing simple blouses and slacks and even eating rice with her hands with the public a la Estrada.

Yet the president’s constantly changing style of hair and dress indicated she was worried about her public image. Was she too overdressed or too simple? The various images that she sought to project, often at odds with each other, made her seem confused. Admittedly, as a woman she had a much harder time at projecting a consistent image compared to say Estrada. For Estrada only had to wear a barong Tagalog to be formal or a T-shirt to be simple. For women, fashion has always been more complex and multilayered, the options open to them absolutely mind-boggling in number.

GMA’s obsession with her image culminated in her telecast appeal to the nation on Monday asking for help to pull the country out of poverty. The brainchild of her overpaid publicist Dante Ang, the president was filmed working at her desk in Malacañang Palace. Wearing a short-sleeved denim shirt, GMA takes off her glasses and puts down the papers she is holding as the camera zooms in to her face. She launches into her appeal using a pleading voice that is supposed to communicate honesty, desperation and humility.

I watched a portion of it on Tuesday night on The Filipino Channel and was appalled by the denim shirt she was wearing. I’d never seen her wear something similar, and it seemed obvious that someone had advised her to wear it in order to look like she connected with the working classes. To me it looked too gimmicky.

On Wednesday, the president defended her decision to ask the people for support, explaining that she was worried that the public didn’t feel the fruit of her administration’s efforts.

“To make these programs successful at the ground level, I need the support of our people. I have to spend my time now making sure it is felt below. That’s where I should put my attention now,” the president told reporters over lunch on Wednesday.

Her critics were quick to slam her performance on Monday, saying what a bad actress she was. Sen. Loi Ejercito, wife of former President Estrada, said GMA came across as “very insincere.” Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo said GMA’s performance in the telecast made her seem weak and scared, and added that she had fallen for the same tactics used by Estrada.

Although GMA may be sincere in trying to express her administration’s anti-poverty goals to the public, her telecast on Monday did come across as phony. I think she would do better to leave the acting to real actors, such as Estrada, and instead focus on improving the lives of the millions of Filipinos who live in grinding poverty. Oh, and get rid of Dante Ang and any other overpaid publicist. They only suck money out of the presidency and give faulty advice that backfires more often than not.

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New envoy to Saudi Arabia

According to unconfirmed reports, DFA Assistant Secretary Bahn Guinomla will be the new Philippine ambassador to Saudi Arabia. Currently in the Kingdom with the official Philippine Haj delegation, Guinomla served as the Philippine Consul General in Jeddah during the 1990s.

If the information is true, Filipinos in the Kingdom will be well served. Although Guinomla endured a never-ending stream of controversy concerning the International Philippine School Jeddah while he was here, I think most were pleased with his energetic tour of duty. Intelligent, charming, well-spoken and accessible, Guinomla was an excellent representative of the Philippine government.

After leaving Jeddah, Guinomla was appointed head of the Mindanao office of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Davao.

Outgoing Ambassador Rafael Seguis is still in Riyadh, although his appointment as ambassador to Indonesia has already been officially confirmed.

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Legislators coming to Riyadh

A bicameral (Senate and House of Representatives) committee hearing will be held in Riyadh on March 15 on the proposal to enable OFWs to vote in Philippine national elections. Senators Edgardo Angara and Blas Ople, among others, will be heading the delegation that will meet with OFW groups in the capital. Before coming to Riyadh, they will also meet with Gulf OFWs in Abu Dhabi. Last month, the joint committee held hearings in Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Hong Kong OFWs reiterated that they wanted ballots to be counted in Hong Kong before they were sent to the Comelec in Manila, to make sure that OFW votes were not tampered with. I suspect that OFW groups in Riyadh will ask for a similar condition. I also hope they will discuss the various mechanisms that the bill will allow OFWs to vote with, be it a mail-in ballot all the way to electronic voting via the Internet.

I personally think that voting should be allowed in a variety of ways, as mail delivery in many countries (including Saudi Arabia) is unreliable and slow. Lost or delayed ballots in the mail are a very real possibility that all OFWs and the Comelec will have to be prepared to deal with. I think that OFWs should be offered three ways of voting abroad: Through mail, at Philippine embassies and consulates, and through the Internet. All these forms of voting are admittedly open to fraud, but then so are ballots cast in the Philippines itself. These constant worries voiced about fraud occurring if OFWs are allowed to vote in Philippine elections are rubbish. If that were such a concern then elections themselves in the Philippines would be abolished, a step I’m sure most Filipinos wouldn’t agree to!

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