When Louis XVIII was restored as king of France (1814-1824), after the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte in Waterloo, a turncoat stumblingly explained to the king that he actually had not taken an oath of allegiance to Bonaparte. "I understand," interrupted the king, "you didn't swear an oath to Bonaparte, you swore an oathlet."

The king was being sarcastic. There's no such thing as half an oath or a little oath. It's a full, total commitment.

For public officials, the oath is a solemn declaration, appealing to God no less, that one will speak the truth or keep a promise.

The ritual of an elected President reciting the oath--before the Supreme Court chief justice and, by
extension, the rest of the nation, with the oathtaker's hand on a Bible--is intended to invest solemnity, even reverence, in the declaration.

While the Constitution is silent about what other elected government officials must say, it is specific about what the newly elected president's oath.

Gloria Arroyo, the proclaimed president, must swear that she will "faithfully and conscientiously":

• fulfill her duties as President of the Philippines,

• preserve and defend the country's Constitution,

• execute its laws,

• do justice to every man (and woman), and

• consecrate herself to the service of the nation.

The oath virtually covers everything President Arroyo must do while on the job.

Presidents don't always succeed in keeping the oath. Some even willfully betray it.

One president plotted to break the oath, imposed a dictatorship, stole the country blind, and oppressed the people. Another president mocked it by abusing his powers, neglecting his duties, and enriching himself and his friends. (Both were eventually ousted but the blessing of people power has since become a curse to afflict orderly succession.)

To President Arroyo, the oath is her second. How well did she fare in keeping the promise under her first oath, taken after Edsa II installed her in office?

Not too well. Political experts say she could not have won if she had not marshaled vast state resources and close rival Fernando Poe Jr. had not bungled his campaign and wasted his popularity.

Clearly, with this second oath, President Arroyo needs to do a lot better. With the assault on her mandate, it must not be "more of the same"--she must not repeat the mistakes of her first stint in the Palace.

It helps if she always remembers, or is reminded about, her oath of office, even after she has already said it, even as she again tackles in earnest the nation's problems.