Malacanang screwup contributed to it's own problems

by using the pre-emption tactic.

Randy David explains:

It is interesting how much the Palace has contributed to its own problems. The existence of these taped conversations was first publicly announced by no less than the presidential spokesman himself. June 6 was a Monday. We can reasonably assume that Malacañang's crisis team met during the weekend to determine how to handle the tapes. When Bunye presented and played two compact discs to the Palace press corps, one labeled "original" and the other "altered," it is difficult to believe the President did not authorize what he was going to do or say on that occasion. A presidential spokesman speaking on his own behalf on a vital matter pertaining to the President? That would have been the height of irresponsibility.

Bunye promptly disappeared immediately after. When he returned to his post sometime later, he had a different story to tell. He said he was no longer sure that was the President's voice on the tapes, and that he was now convinced that both tapes had been tampered with. He could no longer identify the source of these two tapes. In less than a week, Malacañang moved from pre-emption to damage control, indicating the active participation of lawyers.

Now the administration has shifted it's tactics to the arena of legal combat:

It is clear that Malacañang has shifted President Arroyo's bid for survival from the terrain of political debate, where she is losing, to the arena of legal combat, where she hopes to win or, at least, delay her downfall.

The latest Palace line is a model of studied evasiveness: The President won the elections fair and square. If there are any doubts about her victory, they must be resolved in accordance with the rule of law. The alleged wiretapped conversations, whether authentic or not, are illegal, and therefore inadmissible in evidence. The President has not committed any impeachable offense. Without saying so explicitly, the Palace is daring the President's detractors to sue her.

The President has the numbers in both houses of Congress. Her allies can ignore public opinion and throw out any impeachment case at any stage of the process. The country may go through this wrenching exercise all over again, hoping that truth and justice will prevail in the end. But in the final analysis, the case will be resolved by a vote based not on any objective appreciation of the evidence at hand but on political allegiance.

Nobody said it's going to be easy Prof. David, especially if the civil society and the mainstream media continues to prop her up.