It took some time for Sen. Joker Arroyo to come to terms with what was unfolding before his -- and the nation?s -- eyes. ?What you?re telling us,? he boomed at Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., ?is that all these government officials are in conspiracy with you!? As if such a possibility boggled the mind. But this is precisely what not only Lozada but all the administration officials and their battery of lawyers on display in the Senate were saying and continued to say. There was a conspiracy.

The conspiracy was upon the instigation of Lozada, who deeply desired avoiding the Senate inquiry. The objective of the conspiracy was to prevent Lozada from testifying. The conspiracy involved, by their own admission, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Joselito Atienza, and Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel Gaite. The conspiracy involved the highest echelons of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). What the administration disputes is that the conspiracy involved kidnapping Lozada, and that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo knew what was afoot.

As for everything else, officials high and low were willing to fall on their swords. Gaite admitted that legally they had no leg to stand on in terms of frustrating the Senate?s power to summon Lozada and compel his testimony, but the legal eagles of the government used their brain power to try to outfox the Senate. Atienza admitted that he had consented to the gambit of sending Lozada abroad, and trying to sneak him back into the country. Former presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor admitted that he?d tried to institute damage control in the media by suggesting that Lozada call a press conference but mouth the party line. PNP Director General Avelino Razon, NAIA General Manager Alfonso Cusi, his deputy Angel Atutubo and Police Senior Supt. Paul Mascariñas all said they?d tried to sneak Lozada out of the NAIA and ?secure? him until the Defensor-organized press conference could take place.

Mascariñas rolling around in a Tuoareg (a high-priced SUV) loaned by a ?friend? is just one example of an official who has blurred the lines between what is private and what is public, where everything is permissible because of access to power and where money easily changes hands, whether it be Defensor?s handing P50,000 he just happened to have on hand, or the billions in government commissions.

But even the watchful gaze of Romulo Macalintal, the President?s lawyer, and the periodic consultations among all the President?s men, could not achieve the administration?s very limited objectives. The only things that remain in doubt is whether Lozada?s abduction was a well-planned one, or one that was bungled from the start because it was triggered by official panic; and to what extent the President was in the know, although it?s quite obvious the whole scheme was hatched with her political and legal protection in mind.

Senators Arroyo and Juan Ponce Enrile tag-teamed to try to nudge the hearing in the direction of pinning the blame on the administration?s musclemen, Atutubo and Mascariñas, for having turned ?securing? Lozada into a public relations nightmare the administration didn?t deserve, because it was only trying to help keep Lozada from incriminating high officials.

What is indisputable is that for the Palace, the media exist only to be manipulated. Furthermore, the administration continues to make it clear that allies are only useful to the extent that they can be importuned to dissemble in public, or be sacrificed to keep the public off the President?s scent. Lawyer Antonio Bautista, for example, kept trying to focus attention on former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos as the real culprit in the whole ZTE national broadband network deal, the appropriate fall guy.

Also very clear is that the administration attitude toward the other branches of government is patently hostile and subversive. Law and regulations are all subject to dilatory tactics. The chain of command, uniformed officers and armed accomplices are expected to obey orders even if such orders are vague and lead subordinates to wander around, waiting for further instructions. All are instruments to be used for partisan objectives.

For there can be no more partisan objective than to shield the executive from congressional oversight, to divert public outrage to the courts where cases can wither and die, and to excuse the President of any culpability for her actions.