MANILA, Philippines - For the second straight time, the social Weather Stations has removed two comfort zones from GMA. Or, if not comfort zones, at least two arguments to fuddle up the case. One is that she is unpopular only in the cities, and only in Luzon, because she is quite popular in the Visayas, particularly in Winston Garcia’s favorite city, Cebu (hence his reward at GSIS). Two is that she is unpopular only among the cantankerous minority because she is quite popular with the silent majority who can ramdam na ramdam na the kaunlaran, or reap the harvest of her rule.

The latest SWS survey debunks it. It shows that GMA isn’t just the most disliked president since Ferdinand Marcos—there are no comparable figures for Marcos, but I’d be happy if someone could find a way to extrapolate and compare the two, it could yield the most intriguing results—she is disliked in all geographical regions by all social classes. It was the first time, the SWS said, that dissatisfaction was at “majority levels” in all areas—63 percent in Metro Mania, 60 percent in Luzon, 62 percent in Mindanao and 56 percent in the Visayas.

Astonishing as that is, it is not the most astonishing thing of all. Even more astonishing is how GMA’s lieutenants have excused the findings.

PMS head Cerge Remonde says they were to be expected because of the high prices of rice and fuel, which the people blame on his boss. Though she is sensitive to public opinion, he says, she will continue to do what is right and not what is popular. Noli de Castro echoes the sentiment, saying the public was probably put off by some unpopular but necessary steps she took. “But to say that she does not work, well, I am witness to how hard she works.” Eduardo Ermita says running a country “is not a popularity contest.”

Well, the proposition that hard times are not congenial to the approval ratings of presidents, real or imagined, is simply not true. While it is true that the public is bound to be testy and grumble loudly during these times, it doesn’t follow that they will be testy and grumble loudly against their leader. The Americans did not loathe their president during the worst time in their lives, they loved him. They loved FDR so much they voted for him four times. They would probably have made him president for life except that he disappointed them by dying in office.

If GMA ever becomes our president for life, it won’t be because we want her to. We never even made her president at all, and she’s still there.

Her disapproval ratings do not come from a widespread perception of her being lazy, it comes from a widespread perception of her working very, very hard—to keep power. In fact devoting all her waking hours, probably even her sleep, to it.

The notion that GMA is unpopular because she makes tough decisions is of course the staple Malacañang dishes out in answer to surveys like this. This time around, however, that staple comes off as being very stale. It comes at a time when GMA has just capitulated to the Church on the population issue simply because she cannot afford to antagonize the bishops. That is in fact the hallmark of her rule, to take the line of least resistance.

There’s a caveat to that. She will always take the popular route, or avoid the unpopular one, unless the unpopular decision is essential to her survival. The VAT is clearly so. It was a “tough” decision in the extreme, but GMA took it anyway to survive, not least by having the wherewithal to buy off the congressmen, the bishops and the Supreme Court justices.

But the VAT too guarantees that GMA’s approval ratings will plunge even more precipitously in months to come. When the last SWS survey was taken, the CBCP had not yet made noises about scrapping the VAT. Remonde’s remonstration that GMA’s unpopularity owes to the public blaming her for the rice and oil prices doesn’t catch the enormity of it. With the windfall in VAT that government has been raking in from the same high prices of rice and oil, the spectacle it regales the public with is that of GMA reveling in the people’s misery. Or in more forceful Tagalog, “nagpapasasa habang naghihikahos ang mamamayan.”

You want to see unpopular, wait till the next SWS and Pulse Asia surveys.

But even that is not the most astonishing thing of all. What is is simply this: Why is she still there?

You look at our pretty graphic graph-cum-cartoon last Saturday, and you’ll see how completely unlike her predecessors, only GMA has had negative ratings. You look at it even more closely, and you’ll see that she has had consistently negative ratings since around 2005, which was when the “Hello Garci” tape surfaced. The public disapproval clearly owes not just to a widespread perception of her lack of performance but to a widespread perception of her lack of legitimacy. The performance merely compounds or lessens the illegitimacy, going up or down but still at sub-zero levels.

But there’s the one big rub, she’s still there. That raises the mind-boggling question of whether she has not successfully removed the element of legitimacy and public approval—never mind shame and sensitivity—from public office. It’s as if she’s saying, “What has being elected or serving the people got to do with being president?” No, more than that, it’s as if she’s saying, “What has being disliked, detested and reviled by the people got to do with me leading them wherever I damn please?” This is a rule that is being carried out against the express wishes of the ruled, but for all that, it is being carried out.

That is no longer a reflection on the ruler, it is a reflection on the ruled. That is no longer a reflection on the sadism of the governor, it is a reflection on the masochism of the governed.