young radicals

desperation, not delicadeza

Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos resigned from post yesterday in a dramatic press conference complete with blocking and painful expressions from his family who were flanking him. Full text of Abalos’ resignation letter here.

Abalos’ resignation is another breakthrough development in the sense that he is the first Malacanang-appointed government official to have been implicated in a scandal involving the administration to ever resign from his post. The first casualty, he is now being called, and we expect more heads to roll. Some say he did it out of delicadeza, methinks it’s out of desperation still for the Arroyo administration’s self-preservation. To portray Abalos’ resignation as a ‘heroic’ or ‘honorable’ act is tantamount to tolerating his pretense of innocence and projection of righteous indignation when his involvement in the ZTE scam becomes more obvious and harder to deny. On the contrary, if his resignation proved anything it is that he is a mere maggot in an exposed can of worms. He is the dispensable one, the easiest to get rid of.

Yet one that still has to be handled with care. Abalos, it seems, is now the ‘real deal’ in the ZTE deal, and not Sec. Neri as earlier perceived. It is he who has nothing left to lose and everything to gain if he decides to kiss and tell.

As for his reasons for resigning, it is very difficult to imagine how he hopes to achieve peace of mind for himself or his family when investigations are still ongoing. Same goes for the numerous legal cases that await him, impeachment notwithstanding. He himself said before that he would not ever consider resigning from his post because it would mean admission of guilt. What now?

Let’s wait and see what’s cooking on TV (or what is now being dubbed as the NBN telenovela).

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what's the buzz?

the eagle, er, vulture has landed.

*photo from philstar.com

posted by adarna @ 7:59 PM