Gloria Arroyo admitted that she had been told about the irregular ZTE deal. That did not stop her from rushing to China while her husband lay unconscious at the critical care unit and witness the signing of the contract. She also admitted that her economic planning minister told her about the offer of the chief vote counter to throw him a 200 million peso cut in the action in exchange for his cooperation.

She admitted she was concerned the Chinese might “lose face” if she cancelled the entire deal at that time even if the kickback in question was to the tune of $130 million, certainly no small change for a country with a massive shortage of classrooms, a barely present healthcare delivery system, 50 million diets perennially short of protein.

Six months passed between the revelations and the actual scrapping of the contract. Covered in this period was the May 2007 elections which raises a very disturbing consideration. How will we teach our citizens to respect their sovereign right to vote if all you need to take care of is the obscene retirement package of Ben “counter” Abalos?

No Mrs. Arroyo, your explanation is totally wanting. You are telling us what we already all know. Your obfuscating silence on other matters simply confirms that you manipulated your election in 2004, it doesn’t make a difference that most of your fellow traditional politicos were likewise engaged in subverting the will of the people and therefore had no moral credibility to accuse you of the ultimate betrayal that a leader can inflict upon her people.

This might just be the opportunity for Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez to redeem himself. He used to be with the people. Mrs. Arroyo has admitted she had been advised about the irregularities, now he needs to do his job and conduct an impartial investigation and earnestly seek the truth amid this sordid mess.

And we will all see how fast this fancy tableau crumbles.