The political buzz this past week in some circles was that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's campaign was on a real roll, with her supporters claiming that she was now unbeatable because of her miniscule lead in some potentially biased opinion polls. They continued with their rosy assessment of GMA's chances of winning the May 10 election by pointing to the fact that the peso rallied after she met with the Makati Business Club, a supposed indication that the business sector is scared of a possible Fernando Poe Jr. presidency.

The other buzz making the rounds was that FPJ's campaign was supposedly running out of both steam and money, with a hard-headed Sen. Panfilo Lacson refusing to slide down and clear the way for FPJ to be the single opposition candidate. Lacson is also refusing to give up the bags of money being given to him by Filipino-Chinese supporters, who are allegedly backing him because of his perceived hard-line approach to kidnappers during his term as PNP chief.

As many have observed, the lack of a deal between Lacson and FPJ seems to be due to their monumental clash of egos. Lacson, once the golden-haired boy of former President Joseph Estrada, who yesterday had the nerve to deny ever promising Estrada that he would slide-down and give way to FPJ if he trailed in opinion polls, is really convinced of his own popularity and ability to lead the nation. This despite the fact that he is trailing in all opinion polls, and that there is a considerable block of voters who would never vote for him because of his alleged shadowy involvement in kidnap-for-ransom gangs and the rubout of the Kuratong Baleleng gang.

FPJ, to his credit, hasn't been gloating about his lead in the polls, and has just kept on campaigning around the country as usual. Detractors have tried to paint him as an unstable and hot-tempered man because of a few run-ins he's had with annoying members of the press. This is a false accusation, one dreamed up to blacken FPJ's image. Just because he snapped at that silly reporter from the GMA TV network, doesn't mean he's going to snap under pressure once in Malaca?ang Palace.

President Arroyo, on the other hand, has been irritatingly sneering her way through this campaign, at one point even denigrating FPJ for being a mere actor with no previous political experience. A day after those remarks, Arroyo was forced to eat her own words, saying that in fact she admires actors and several actors were running for public office under the administration's K4 banner.

My only remark on this incident is that Arroyo appreciates the star-pulling power of actors and as such is more than happy to use Kris Aquino, Nora Aunor and Ai-Ai delas Alas, all showbiz stars, to campaign for her.

The truth is that it is too early to call this election. There is still a large chunk of the electorate who are undecided, some estimating that group to be as large as 34 percent of voters. Having so many opposition presidential candidates, including Raul Roco and Eddie Villanueva, weakens the chances of an opposition candidate winning the race. I don't envy the choices of Filipino voters at the ballot box. It's not only the matter of voting for the least evil of all candidates, it's also voting for the candidate who can win the election and who can get things done with the smallest amount of corruption.

In the final analysis, I still think FPJ deserves a second look. His lack of formal education and experience in office may be just what the Philippines needs. He may provide a fresh and novel way of running the country. Certainly he will be surrounded by experienced advisers.

For all of Arroyo's education and political experience, she has failed to move the country forward economically and socially. Instead, her sneering has polarized the country further and divided Filipinos. Do Filipinos really need six more years of that? I don't think so.

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