Tacloban City (7 December) -- It is unfathomable how some people have the tendency to always find ways to degrade people. Think of the detractors are doing now adays -- painting negative notions and criticisms on the Presidents State Visit in Spain, instead of being happy that the President was able to strengthen the relations and interaction of the Philippines with other countries for their mutual benefit.

Yet President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo once again proved to one and all, what a statesman she truly is, gaining the respect of the international community, the Spanish legislators and the Spanish businessmen.

Moved by her sincere desire to win friends and supporters for the Philippines and the Filipinos, the President is always able to make headway in forging bilateral relations with whatever country she visits.

The gains derived in terms of investments and deeper bilateral relations and understanding during the President's 6-day state visit to Spain and the United Kingdom, are all worth all the expense.

The President's state visit to Spain has paved the way for the signing of various agreements worth more than P9 billion for agriculture-related projects that will ultimately redound to the benefit of the Filipinos.

Notable among these agreements is the large-scale production of jatropha as an alternative energy source and as feedstock.

Spain's Ministry of Agriculture and the Department of Agriculture of the Philippines have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on the development of 100 hectares of agricultural lands in Palawan for jatropha production.

These agreements would not have materialized had the President not been involved personally in the critical phases of negotiations.

The people will not be fooled by these detractors. Where in the world can one find so called gentlemen and leaders, who call upon the people to rise up and overthrow the duly constituted authority and then claim that the entire farce is covered by the freedom of speech and peaceful assembly? How ridiculous!

And what about the former high official who claimed he was clueless on what was going on. Everyone saw he sat beside the detractors. His voice was heard over the airlanes how he was denouncing the Administration just like in many past occasions.

These so-called "leaders" turned "stuntmen" must have such low regard for the Filipino intelligence as a people and do not squirm as they insult the Filipinos so blatantly with their flimsiest alibis. Nwhere else in the world does this happen.

At least they were given a dose of their own medicine when the Filipino people heeded not their call to join their ambition to overthrow the government.