The unforgiven

So now can we forgive, forget and get on with our lives?

President Arroyo can only dream of that, as the nation digests her apology over wiretapped conversations with "a Comelec official."

Forgive and forget? Not if the opposition can help it. And it’s not just the opposition that is in an unforgiving mood.

Yesterday the markets were unimpressed by the President’s apology. What generated some hopeful excitement, according to a guy handling foreign investments in the stock market, was not the President’s unprecedented mea culpa, but the speculative report that she planned to tell her eldest son and brother-in-law to quit the House of Representatives.

If those resignations push through, the trader said, he was 100 percent sure his firm’s foreign clients would pour investments back into the Philippines. Investors, the trader explained, are waiting for economic and political reforms. They realize that economic reforms will take time, but certain political reforms can be accomplished faster.

Investors were reportedly rattled by allegations of corruption in the jueteng exposé involving the President’s relatives.

The President’s admission of her conversations with "an election official" doused some of the blaze, but the rest of the house is still on fire. The trader said that if the President told her eldest son and brother-in-law to leave Congress, it would be seen by investors as a strong sign that she finally means business in implementing reforms.

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This investor sentiment appears to have been conveyed to the President. A source with a background in the investment community said the President’s mea culpa speech included a portion declaring that henceforth, she and Sen. Joker Arroyo would be the only ones with that surname in politics.

The line was reportedly deleted at the last minute, possibly because the Palace realized the President could not speak for Senator Arroyo. Or maybe Malacañang was worried about the legal implications of a president telling elected officials to resign, which could be seen as abandonment or dereliction of duty.

Or perhaps a presidential relative balked at the idea. Palace insiders say the only man who can shout back at taray queen Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is her son, Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo, now under fire over alleged jueteng payoffs.

There is no public forgiveness for Mikey and his uncle, Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo, who are now deemed guilty until they can prove otherwise. It’s unfair, but many things are unfair in this land where the rule of law is a joke.

Yesterday Iggy Arroyo, who claims to be the mysterious Jose Pidal, said he had no plans of leaving Congress. The two Arroyo congressmen will probably say they are innocent and therefore need no forgiveness for anything. But they may have to take the heat for the President if her administration is to survive.

Saying sorry is not enough; the nation wants justice. What that usually means here is that the nation wants punishment; the nation wants blood.

Since it doesn’t look like the President is ready to leave her post any time soon, no matter how shrill the calls for her resignation from the also-rans in the presidential race last year, someone else will have to go.

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The President appears ready for painful reforms. One of her advisers calls it "constructive contrition."

For now, however, it looks like the first casualty of constructive contrition isn’t going to be any presidential relative, but poor Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye.

Sure we all know that Bunye was just following orders when he first alerted the nation, live on TV, to the existence of the tapes. Exhibit A was the original, he said; Exhibit B was the altered version. Then he distributed copies to journalists, who of course listened to the tapes and transcribed the contents.

Bunye was soon backpedaling, clarifying that he wasn’t sure it was his boss on the incriminating tapes. Still later he amended his statement, saying that while the voice could be the President’s, the question was whether the tapes had been tampered with to change the context of the conversations.

And now the boss has spoken. So who made the "altered" version presented by Malacañang?

Bunye, amiable guy that he is, has become Exhibit A of detractors who say that from Day One Malacañang has been intent merely on damage control rather than telling the truth.

Even the President’s belated admission, made after three weeks reportedly under pressure from civil society and gentle persuasion from former President Corazon Aquino, is seen merely as the move of someone who has run out of alternatives.

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President Arroyo’s failure to identify the "election official" guaranteed continued speculation about the rest of the wiretapping story. Why couldn’t she identify "Garci"? Was she worried that the guy would refute her story?

With "Garci" still missing in action, the picture is not yet complete. And until we get the complete picture, suspicions will linger that the administration is hiding something.

It doesn’t help that the President is now being asked to apologize to the nation for her "bad acting" in her mea culpa. As even one Cabinet member sighed yesterday, "Maganda na sana, kaso biglang ngumiti!" Rough translation: It was going well until she smiled!

In the first place, smiling does not come naturally to this President. That smile near the end of her nationally televised address looked so badly rehearsed, as if she had been reminded about it by someone flashing a cue card in a TV studio. It gave her apology a contrived conclusion. Whoever thought of that smile should go first before Bunye or any presidential relative.

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Reactions to the President’s mea culpa are all predictable. Her allies are praising her for her courage. The Left is demanding her ouster, as it has been doing for the past four years.

Malacañang is said to be bracing for "Chapter Two" of the opposition’s efforts to oust her.

The opposition’s reaction is best summed up by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who said on TV: "Lokohin niya ang lelang niyang panot!" Literal translation: She can fool her balding granny!

That kind of reaction at least can save the day for the embattled President. It’s cute but infantile, and it offers nothing constructive.

After the mea culpa, the nation wants to know what’s next.

People are hoping that the President, in her rather half-baked mea culpa, has set in motion a process for determining the truth and upholding the rule of law.

People are looking for change. We should see opportunity in every crisis. In this case, we might finally see tentative steps toward genuine reforms.