EDITORIAL — 'Tol manages to walk tall
Michael Defensor may be one of the most vocal defenders of President Arroyo, a most difficult task considering the huge unpopularity of the president, but it appears he may also be one of the most level-headed and prudent.
Defensor has conceded defeat in the senatorial race of the May 14 elections, the first to do so among the badly-battered Team Unity of the administration, a move that, as he said, ought to help ease tensions and erase suspicions.
For indeed, for as long as members of the administration senatorial slate continue to hedge conceding, people will start believing the suspicion that the seeming reluctance of the Comelec to proclaim the clear winners is tied to an attempt to manipulate the results.
As of the last count, the opposition was leading
And by the way, those suspicions are not exactly unwarranted, in light of the Garci Tapes controversy that has tainted the administration of President Arroyo forever. There is no more preventing the constant resurrection of that specter, only opportunities to mitigate damage.
And that is precisely the opportunity Defensor took. As one of the Malacañang fair-haired boys, he was always under suspicion of being a potential beneficiary in case the Palace decides to do some hanky-panky, which as clearly shown by the results, it did not do.
But with the opposition winning, and the Comelec not cooperating by proclaiming the clear winners, there is no way to avoid those suspicions from surfacing, suspicions that Defensor knew will eventually fall on the lap of his beloved president.
And so, as the ever-loyal favorite of Arroyo, Defensor did what was only right under the circumstances, which was to concede. Besides, by his own admission, it was already statistically impossible to win, so conceding was not as hard as some other candidates seem to insist.
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