re candidates talking to COMELEC officials

Since it is looking more and more na guilty talaga si GMA, nag-iba na naman ang tactic ng Admin. Instead of focusing on GMA's defense, they instead tried to implicate the opposition in the cheating scandal by claiming that some opposition members talked to COMELEC officials too.

But there's nothing really wrong with talking to a COMELEC official per se. I mean, kanino ka pa ba lalapit kung may complaints ka or may election dispute kang gustong ipa-settle? Kanino ka lalapit kung mayroon kang inquiries or election-related questions na gustong mong malinawan?

Kaya nga most people didn't take GMA's "apology" very seriously, kasi she apologized only for "talking" to a COMELEC official. Well, we're not asking her to resign because she "talked" to Garci. We're asking her to resign because she conspired with a COMELEC official and the military to rig the elections.

(At hindi lang naman yung tape ang ebidensiya na may dayaan eh. The opposition has accumulated plenty of evidence of massive election fraud during the vote canvassing, pero binaliwala lang ito ng mga administration allies ni Arroyo. The opposition asked for a recount, but Mr. Pangilinan and Mr. Raul Gonzales denied their request more than 200 times by repeating the line "Noted, noted, noted.")

So even if some in the opposition (or administration) may have talked to Abalos et al, unless there is credible evidence that they discussed re illegally increasing their vote totals with Garci or talked about abducting a whistleblower to prevent him from talking, then wala ring kwenta ang "damay tactics" ng arroyo administration.

Of course, if any opposition candidate was discovered to have coordinated or discussed with Garci re rigging the elections to ensure their victory, then they too will have to resign.

But even if assuming na some of the opposition were caught cheating in the tapes, it still doesn't make Gloria Macapagal Arroyo any less guilty. It may have put some of the opposition on the defensive, pero buking pa rin si GMA.

At best, the admin allies may have muddled the GLORIAGATE issue more with this tactic, just like when Bunye presented the "original" and "spliced" tapes para lituin ang publiko.