EDITORIAL - Arroyo should not gloat

Once again, we call on President Arroyo and her aides not to be so smug and gloat over the outcome of her impeachment battle in the House of Representatives. Being a political exercise as they say, the outcome did not prove anything. It was not a glorious day as she claimed.

In other words, the charge that she cheated in the last election has never been proven or disproven. It was simply thrown out. Whether it was thrown out because the House is dominated by her allies, or because the congressmen did not believe the charges, we may never know.

Outside Congress, however, especially here in Cebu, we can talk with a much greater degree of certainty. Most Cebuanos do not believe Arroyo cheated, at least in Cebu. She did not have to. Cebuanos are discerning people. Other than Arroyo, there was no viable option.

Cebu is also home to the most vibrant press outside Manila. If there is anyone that is best described as being on "top of the situation," it is the Cebu media. There is hardly any movement, any sight, any smell that can escape the attention of Cebu's discerning press.

It would thus be highly improbable for the Cebu media not to have raised hell had any cheating been detected in the course of the 2004 political exercise. If there is anything that gets the adrenaline of the Cebu media going, it is the existence of controversy.

But a check with the media coverage of the election in Cebu would show nothing of the sort which Alan Peter Cayetano, Francis Escudero, Joel Villanueva, Jacinto Paras, Panfilo Lacson, Aquilino Pimentel, etcetera, insist transpired here.

What gall these people have, to be hundreds of kilometers away from Cebu on election day, to insist on something that the Cebuanos themselves, who were here, did not see even a shadow of. Why, even Pimentel insists it was raining in Cebu on that day. What a big fat lie.

But we do not know what went on elsewhere. And that is why we insist that Arroyo and her aides should not be so smug because, in the Philippines, no politician is ever above cheating if the need and the opportunity arise.

The truth of the matter is, we have always been wary of Arroyo. We went along with her for the simple reason that there was no other viable option. Indeed, we feel the other candidates were far worse than she could ever be.

That is also one of the reasons why we feel relieved by the turn of events. Because we know this whole thing is not about cheating by Arroyo. We know this is part of a grand conspiracy to remove her from power. That is far worse than any cheating, by whoever.