MANILA, Philippines--I'm all for what the Former Senior Government Officials, aka the "X-Men (and Women)" are doing, which is demanding accountability in government. And taking Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to task for obliterating it completely from her government, she herself being at the "center of the cover-up" of the current scandals. The SFGO of course are the top officials of our post-1986 governments who have gathered to express alarm at the current state of the nation. The officials have stopped short of asking Arroyo to resign, Vicente Paterno saying, "We have different preferences on how or when the President should leave."

I'm all for this, except for a couple of things. One is their failure to train the same spotlight on themselves. You call for accountability, you yourself must show, or have shown, a capacity for it. Jun Lozada's credibility lay in his capacity, or willingness, to admit he was part of the process that made "bukol" or lumps possible in government contracts, albeit with the express assignment from his boss, Romulo Neri, to apply ice on them to make sure they did not swell immoderately. I don't know why the 80 or so souls that now comprise the Former Senior Government Officials shouldn't do the same.

I myself have not forgotten that some of them were involved in a fairly recent scam that cost this country P1.4 billion. That scam being the Peace Bonds. To this day, the perpetrators of that scam have not been investigated, let alone punished. P1.4 billion of course is a minor "bukol" compared to the major lumps that are being produced on Juan de la Cruz's head in golf courses and "borjer" joints, but it remains inexcusable. No, it remains criminal. At least Erap, whom they jeered at the Makati rally some weeks ago, has done his time, however the conditions in which he did it might be called that. They haven't.

The second point is the FSGO not calling for Arroyo to resign. In fact I'm all for that too--but not for the reasons held by some of the X-Men (and Women) who prefer that option. The notion that we might as well wait out her term before prosecuting her is patently batty. At the very least that is so because her term is never going to end: She gets away with murder (and that is literal too), she will get away with ruling forever. At the very most, that is so because her term never began: You've ruled without a mandate from the people from the start, you'll rule without a mandate from the people to the end.

That brings me to my point: I am not for calling for Arroyo to resign because I do not see that she has anything to resign from. Seemingly thunderous, the call for her to do so is in fact a dud. It carries with it the most insidious premises, chief of them the presumption that she won the 2004 elections, that she has a term to finish, that she has an office to vacate--three ways of saying the same thing. She did nothing of the kind, she has nothing of the kind. The existence of the "Hello Garci" tape, quite apart from its contents, is ironclad proof of that. You want accountability from government, you have to make government above all and to begin with account for its fundamental claim to exist, not for its continued justification to persist. You call for Arroyo to resign, you are saying she rules execrably. You call on Arroyo to "Alis dyan!" you are saying she has no right to rule, execrably or otherwise.

I don't understand why the Senate hasn't opened up a new front by calling for an investigation of the "Hello Garci" tape. It's well past due. The Supreme Court has already paved the way for it, and the Senate can always replace with a hearing what the House (no small thanks to JDV) preempted in impeachment. You cannot have any Senate hearing that is more in aid of legislation than that. There is nothing more vapid or ridiculous than passing laws under a regime that is illegal. The first law you ought to pass is to declare that regime null and void. Frankly, I don't know why the X-Men (and Women) as indeed all the current citizens of this country shouldn't focus their energies to demanding that investigation.

That is the only investigation that has the force to knock Arroyo off her seat, short of a military intervention. That is the only investigation that has the power to make the citizens refuse to be citizens to a president who is not their president. The NBN has limitations: The idea of untold billions of dollars in pillage cannot long sustain public interest. It is abstract. What drew the masa to the hearings in the first place was not the pillage but the shanghaiing of Jun Lozada.

The "Hello Garci" tape is even better. It is simple, graspable, elemental, dramatic, incendiary. It is the one issue that puts everything to rest, above all Arroyo's contention that she has a term to finish. It is the one issue government has done everything to hide, kill, blot out from the face of the earth. It is the one issue that should hound the usurper like the ghost of Banquo.

Bringing back accountability to government is bringing back morality, ethics, good manners and right conduct to government. The "Hello Garci" tape remains the most immoral, the most unethical and the most bad-mannered and black-hearted piece of conduct ever to assail Philippine politics. To excuse that as a lapse of judgment is to excuse every heinous crime as a lapse of judgment. To reward the creature who did that with the presidency is to commend every act of wrongdoing in this country with praise. There's no point having elections in 2010--even granting that Arroyo will step down--when the last presidential one hasn't been settled. In fact, there is no point having elections at all if we just mean to proclaim the Arroyos (and Zubiris) of this world.

We don't say "Hello Garci" again, we'll never say, "Goodbye Gloria."