MANILA, Philippines?The way her spokesperson tells it, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is hunkering down for some heavy bashing from her critics in her last six months in office.

?From the evidence, [her critics are] trying to cultivate bashing as a cottage industry and their principal source of livelihood,? Gary Olivar, who speaks for the President on economic matters, said by phone.

But Ms Arroyo will apparently just grin and bear the broadsides and lawsuits between now and June 30, when she steps down after a nine-year term beset by scandals of corruption 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.?

Ms Arroyo spent New Year?s Day?the first day of her last six months in office?quietly. (She hosted a party for Cabinet and senior government officials in Malacañang on Thursday night.)

On her first working day on Monday, the militant fisherfolk group Pamalakaya is to file a plunder suit in the Office of the Ombudsman against her, Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap and others.

Pamalakaya said Ms Arroyo should be held liable for the Department of Agriculture?s alleged overpriced procurement of ice-making machines under the principle of command responsibility.

It claimed that in September 2009, Integrated Refrigeration System and Services was awarded a contract to supply 98 ice-making units at P4.6 million a unit?about P2.3 million higher than the prevailing industry price.

MILF peace agreement

But Olivar shrugged this off, saying: ?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 that in her remaining months, Ms Arroyo hoped to complete infrastructure projects, monitor electronic voting in the May elections, ?properly calibrate? stimulus spending vis-à-vis the global economic recovery, and ensure the signing of a peace agreement with the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

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

?The quicker we can achieve lasting peace, the fewer incidents [like the Nov. 23 massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao] we should see in the future,? he said.

No way

Another militant group, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), is looking forward to a new year without Ms Arroyo as president.

In a statement released on New Year?s Eve, Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said Ms Arroyo?s nine-year term had been so ?fraught with corruption and human rights abuses [that] there is no way people will accept a scenario of having [her] stay indefinitely in Malacañang.?

?There is hope because Filipinos will continue to fight for change and struggle for what is just. Those wishing Ms Arroyo will stay in power forever can dream on. The people won?t let it happen,? he said.

Reyes urged the public to be vigilant during the 2010 elections, especially because the polls would be automated for the first time.

The automated system has to work or a general failure of elections will become ?a scenario more beneficial? to Ms Arroyo, he said.

Ms Arroyo has filed a certificate of candidacy for a congressional seat in her home province of Pampanga?the first Filipino president to seek a lower elected position.

Her move raised speculations that she and her allies in Congress would push for a shift to a parliamentary form of government that would enable her to become prime minister.

Justice

Reyes said that for 2010, Bayan hoped for justice for all the crimes allegedly committed by the Arroyo administration.

?For the New Year, we hope to find justice in the many cases of corruption, extrajudicial killings, abduction and torture committed under this regime. We hope the many victims will find the justice they have long been seeking. We hope that those who abused their power for the last nine years will finally be made accountable,? Reyes said. With a report from Nikko Dizon