Hard evidence is, well, hard to come by. These days, when an Administration has almost a perfect score in terms of fighting off all of the allegations thrown at it and have nothing stick, it is a surprise, that many of us have the stomach to take all of it.

Realize this, take some antacid first, because the fact of the matter is that none of the allegations have lead to unseating Arroyo from her seat of power. And in these times, when The Administration has large control over a very partisan government, even in terms of justice, and especially when it comes to many of the Government Departments, I too realize, that we may never get in such a political and government climate ever again, such a climate that President Arroyo has developed and has tried to maintain is almost mind boggling, even George Bush should have tried it himself. It is this infrastructure that has carried this administration through tough, and very rough times. But it is this infrastructure, that has put the wrong people in the wrong places, not for the prosperity of The Filipino people, but for the prosperity of Arroyo’s reign in power.

Now, when the paper trail never seems to lead to The President, the statement innocent until proven guilty, is often cited. And so, We can only hope, that such hard evidence can be had, because even in the time of Nixon, the Watergate scandal came to a full head, once the tapes had been exposed. The ultimate conspiracy lead to the presidency.

But I submit, to you my dear readers, that the cases against President Gloria Arroyo, are strong, very strong, based on command responsibility, based on misappropriated funds, and so much more, but the smoking gun has never been found, except for one, which I mention in the next paragraph. Call it genius, I say it’s something else. You decide. And even when it led straight to the top, it has had to be based on testimony, for example, that of Romulo Neri. He told her about the alleged bribe attempt, she confirmed her knowledge about the NBN deal, in no less than on a radio show, but still, nothing came about.

Even, when the strongest case, election fraud, was brought to The Senate, in the whirlwind that we now know as The Garci Tapes, we still could not deliver a death sentence to this Administration, it was not only a failure of our government, and all those involved, but it was the death of the trust that our people had in this government.

President Gloria Arroyo, blame her all you want, because I certainly do, has built up so many safeguards, has made the political moves, and has the deep political team, and bench, that even in such a time in which Joc Joc Bolante is now testifying before The Senate, she may be a bit nervous, but in the end, she has to know, her machinery, and her political infrastructure will shield her from any form of accountability. Each and every time, she has been cleared, either by witnesses, by government institutions, or by providing another fall guy to take the fall.

It’s a sad realization. That even, while, I am sick to my stomach, watching the Joc Joc hearings, that, nothing seems be coming out of it, that it is important that The Filipino People realize, just as when Neri testified, the messed up system of procurement, appropriation, project planning, etc, that our nation is in.

But, when people close their eyes to such anomalies, declare a saint out of this woman, I take notice, and I take offense, because such denial, such defense, it can no longer can be based on logical reason, but on a mere partisan reaction.

So, we are in a quandry, the obviousness of the whole affair, this affair that we call The Arroyo Administration, as to how to hold her responsible. But we have not the political climate to exact the punishment that is due to her. The strongest hard evidence, The Hello Garci tapes, led to nothing, but a now popular term — “Noted”.

Hard evidence is there, I say, but even putting this aside, the most damning is when you take the bulk of these anomalies, add on to it human rights violations, kidnappings during this regime, and now a resurgent Fertilizer Fund Scam investigation, these all scream Arroyo, and political will is strong to bring her to account, but the numbers, however, and the machinery sides with Arroyo.

In this climate, not even a smoking atomic bomb from any testimony from Joc Joc, I am afraid, will ever unseat our dear Madam President. Got any more antacids?

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