Efforts to antagonize the Bush administration and cause hate between President George W. Bush and the Philippine President had been a key and operative strategy of those seeking to oust the Arroyo government.

Part of that strategy was the mention off and on of opposition leaders calling on US Embassy officials in Manila for various reasons to give the impression that something supportive of their cause was within range.

Just a few days ago President Arroyo cautioned opposition leaders against attempts to damage the country’s good relationships with the United States just to serve their ambition for power.

Suspicions that opposition leaders were involving the United States in their struggle for political power became inescapable with the arrest of Filipino-born Leandro Aragoncillo, a former US marine officer, for allegedly stealing classified documents from Washington, "to bring down her government," according to the President.

Also arrested in the US for alleged conspiracy was Michael Ray Aquino, a former Philippine police officer, for passing stolen classified documents "to past and present officials of the Philippine government."

"The coup plotters and robbers of classified information are trying to cover up their misdeeds by throwing noise at every opportunity," Arroyo said, adding that they were even prepared to go to the extent of destroying Philippine and American relations just to serve their hankering for political domination.

In reaffirming US support to the Arroyo administration, newly designated Charge d’Affaires Paul Jones of the American Embassy here, conveyed President Bush’s message, saying, "We very much support your leadership and the country," during a courtesy call on President Arroyo in Malacañang Friday last week.

Such reassurances, coming at this precise time of increasing tumult in the streets, show potential for calm and the rethinking of new avenues towards rational and more perceptive political debate at the proper marketplace.

This is not to imply that we need US favors to win our goal as a free nation but it helps.

Could anyone imagine what would happen if George Bush withdrew US support from the Arroyo government?

In fact, that was what the opposition was expecting after President Arroyo recalled the Philippine contingent from Iraq, the reason calls for her resignation intensified.

Even some so-called political analysts, including those from the academe, mistakenly thought that that would be the consequence of the President’s recall order, ignoring the broader scope and deeper implications of leadership engagements in the international stage.

Maybe Gloria Arroyo was just lucky or probably she played her card right at the right time when she promptly declared her support to Bush’s calls for international backing of his declared war against terrorism while others were shrewdly temporizing.

In reaffirming US support to the Arroyo government, US Ambassador Henry Crumpton who is coordinator for counter terrorism, told President Arroyo, "We would like to thank you for your role in the region in the fight against terrorism."

He conveyed President Bush’s appreciation for the Arroyo government’s important role as part of a "collective efforts against global threat of terrorism."

Well, I think she is really lucky because despite the mistakes that she commits left and right, as she once said, opposition leaders and their allies remain mixed up and bewildered.