he current crisis now gripping the Philippines is truly nothing more than a tempest in a teapot. On the scale of wrongdoings by current and previous public officials, the president's admitted "lapse of judgment" might hardly even register. Still, folks in Manila have been stirred into a frenzy! U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Joseph Mussomeli couldn't have said it any better. Commenting in an interview regarding the Garcillano tapes, he perceptively noted: "there’s a lot of serious work to be done -- from alleviating poverty to protecting children, to protecting the environment, to fighting corruption -- but nope, people prefer this 80-million person soap opera." And that comment seems to encapsulate what politics in the Philippines has become...a form of mass entertainment. And with movie stars and other showbiz personalities in government, why not?

If one takes a step back (and a deep breath) and looks objectively at what is happening in Manila, one will immediately notice its grotesqueness. Politicos who stood by and allowed (and at times even helped) Marcos and Estrada plunder billions of pesos from the Philippine Treasury are now accusing the president of being dishonest? And government officials who looked the other way while scores innocent Filipinos were tortured and killed during Martial Law now suddenly see themselves as  having the moral ascendancy to point an accusing finger at the President and ask her to step down?

In yesterday's speech (7 July 2005), Mrs. Arroyo fired back: "Shameless people have peddled the lie that I confessed to cheating. What I disclosed was that I talked to an election official. But that this had taken place after the certificates of canvas had already been used to proclaim the winning senators, and it was those same certificates of canvass that showed that I won by around a million votes. That is the truth."

So to our fellow kabayans in Metro Manila, before you make things any worse, we suggest you calm down, step back, and take a deep breath! They sky isn't falling, GMA isn't resigning, and the country will continue on it's deliberate march forward. There is still--as US Chargé d’Affaires Mussomeli points out: "a lot of serious work to be done."