MANILA, Philippines - If the Senate hearings on the controversial national broadband network (NBN) project were indeed nothing more than inquiries "in aid of grandstanding," as Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye claims, why is Malacañang moving belatedly to manage the issues raised in the investigation? Going by the presidential spokesman's own logic, the cacophony of recent and even clashing initiatives cannot be anything but an attempt to drown out what Malacañang patronizingly calls "political noise."

The decision of the Department of Justice to investigate the NBN deal, including the allegedly anomalous and now abandoned contract with China's ZTE Corp., seems curiously timed. But the decision of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to finally launch an investigation is not merely curious, it is downright suspicious. As two lawyers have pointed out, the belated sign of activity (after six months in which the Office of the Ombudsman did virtually nothing) seems designed to "kill" the Senate investigation.

Malacañang itself has been busy the past week with "fellowship" dinners among Cabinet members and "briefings" by other high officials. The administration has also seen fit to engage the media more assiduously; the instant press briefing it held with Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, former socioeconomic planning secretary Romulo Neri and Bunye last Monday, to refute talk of the President as "evil," was unusual.

Perhaps the surest sign of panic was the "solidarity walk" the Cabinet took with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Tuesday. Meant to emphasize administration unity, the stage-managed walk inside the Palace grounds conspicuously placed the two Cabinet members most affected by rumors of defection close to the President: Neri walked right beside Ms Arroyo, while Finance Secretary Margarito Teves flanked Neri.

It was anything but spontaneous. Neri, for instance, went to the Palace only to take part in the photo opportunity; he was not even included in the President's next meeting at the Premier Guest House, the ostensible reason for the walk.

And it was anything but original. President Arroyo had done the same thing before, in July 2005, in the wake of the resignation of the so-called "Hyatt 10" group of high-ranking officials who parted ways with the administration because of the "Hello, Garci" scandal. President Joseph Estrada did it too, in 2000, even shadow-boxing part of the way as loyal Cabinet members, including Mar Roxas, then the secretary of trade and industry, looked on. In both instances, the official image was deceptive. The Hyatt 10 included some of the members of Ms Arroyo's inner circle, and Roxas' resignation in November 2000 was a turning point in the crisis that led to Estrada's ouster.

Thus, and perhaps without meaning to, the bright boys of Malacañang stirred unpleasant memories -- unpleasant, that is, for any occupant of Malacañang.

All these initiatives, in the context of the cover-up of the Lozada "abduction." It is now clear that the administration, with the support of the police, was engaged in an attempt to prevent Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., the ZTE-NBN witness, from testifying in the Senate. There was, in a word, a cover-up operation. But it has also become clear that after Lozada finally made the fateful decision to testify, the administration has been hard at work at a cover-up of the cover-up.

Consider, out of many possible examples, the inexplicable generosity of a man like Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel Gaite. Apparently, he is moneyed enough to "lend" a mere acquaintance (according to his own story, Lozada was only recommended to him by another member of the Cabinet) half a million pesos of his own money. Let's think about that: P500,000, signed over with a simple signature like it was petty cash, and without so much as a repayment plan. That Gaite expects the public to believe this blatant lie is a sign of panic.

What's next? Perhaps the entire military and police top brass will appear jointly on TV to announce their support for the President? Perhaps the new Speaker of the House, Prospero Nograles, will ride into Malacañang with a cavalry of congressmen?

None of this builds confidence, or restores credibility. As the cutting colloquial expression puts it, "Bumenta na 'yan."