Wait...She's the Robbing President?

A recent poll suggested that 60 percent of Filipinos want President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to leave office. An printing error on a batch of fresh 100 peso notes has given her opponents even more ammunition.

According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a European contractor misprinted the bills, spelling the President's last name with a v, rather than a y. The contractor was printing extra 100 peso notes to ensure a sufficient supply at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas throughout the Christmas season, when they are frequently used as gifts.

"I hope this is not deliberate," said Rep. Rolex Suplico. "My Spanish teacher told me 'rovo' sounded like 'robo,' which means robbery in Spanish. This is from 'robar,' which means to rob someone."

Another variant of the word, 'dorobo,' is used to describe a thief, burglar or robber in Japanese, said Rep. Benjamin Agarao.

"It's a national joke," he said.

The lawmakers suspected that the heavens might be conspiring against Ms. Arroyo, the Inquirer wrote, "because the circulation of the newly minted bill would be a constant reminder to the people of the 'cheating, lying and stealing' charges hurled against her connection with alleged ballot fixing in 2004."

This is not the first time the national currency has brought controversy to the GMA administration. Two years ago, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas began circulating new 200 peso notes, complete with a picture of Ms. Arroyo being sworn in as president, complete with a portrait of her father, former President Diosdado Macapagal, on the other side.


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If that weren't enough grief for the embattled president, she was recently Google bombed by groups demanding her removal from office.

(You might have heard about the June Google bombing of George W. Bush, when searching for "miserable failure" brought up the official GWB biography as the top result on Google, Yahoo and MSN.)

The Khaleej Times reports:

[Y]oung Internet-savvy Filipino militants mounted what they called a revolt on the blogosphere to discredit Ms Arroyo and her deputies through a "Google bomb" attack.

The groups Youth Demanding Arroyo’s Removal (Youth DARE) and the "young radicals" Internet blog staged an online campaign to "Google bomb" the websites of Ms Arroyo and her most rabid supporters.

In the bombings’ wake, Google search queries for ‘pekeng pangulo’ (fake president) now directs a surfer to Ms Arroyo’s website (www.kgma.org). Type in ‘sinungaling’ (liar), and one gets to the site of her Press secretary and spokesperson. The word ‘sira-ulo’ (fool) is a surfer’s ticket to the website of Ms. Arroyo’s Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez.

There's an interesting list of successful Google bombs on Wikipedia.