MANILA, Philippines?President Macapagal-Arroyo anticipates heavy bashing from critics in her last six months in office, but will just grin and bear it.

"From the evidence, they're trying to cultivate bashing as a cottage industry and their principal source of livelihood,'' one of the President?s spokesmen, Gary Olivar, said in a telephone interview.

But Ms Arroyo won't be distracted by the criticisms and suits between now and June 30, when she steps down after nine years in office marred by corruption scandals and electoral fraud.

"The President has never been distracted. She's single-minded in her job,'' Olivar said. "She wasn't distracted in the last nine years; she won't be distracted in her last six months,'' Olivar said.

Ms Arroyo, who hosted a party for Cabinet and senior government officials in Malacañang Thursday night, spent New Year's Day, the first day of her last six months in office, quietly.

In her first working day on Monday, Ms Arroyo, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and others will be charged with corruption by a militant fisherfolk group over the Department of Agriculture's procurement of allegedly overpriced ice-making machines.

The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas argued that Ms Arroyo should be held liable for the contract under the principle of command responsibility, and be included in the plunder case with the Ombudsman.

It alleged that the agriculture department awarded the Integrated Refrigeration System and Services in September 2009 a contract to supply 98 ice-making units at P4.6 million each, allegedly P2.3 million more than the prevailing industry price.

Olivar shrugged this off, however, saying it was "ideologically-driven harassment.''

"Of course, it's their prerogative to file such cases even if the cases are outlandish, and are in the form of ideologically-driven harassment,'' he said.

In her remaining months, Ms Arroyo hopes to complete infrastructure projects, monitor electronic voting in the upcoming May national elections, "properly calibrate'' stimulus spending vis-a-vis the global economic recovery; and ensure signing of a peace agreement with secessionist rebels in Mindanao.

"She would love a peace agreement signed in Mindanao before she steps down,'' Olivar said, pointing out that this was the lasting solution to volatile law and order problem there.