Because the allegations surrounding the NBN-ZTE scam involve individuals at the heart of the "Hello Garci" conspiracy, the biggest impact of the latter was to reinforce doubts raised by the former about the legitimacy of the incumbent. In the "Hello Garci" conspiracy it appeared that a scheme was hatched involving the highest officials of the elections commission and the President herself to ensure a preferred electoral outcome. The NBN-ZTE scam, on the other hand, appeared like a "payoff" – the reward for loyalty and services rendered in helping keep those in power in power.

As a result, the Commission on Elections chair quits, though claiming innocence to the end. His protestations of innocence – interspersed with the promotion of his "burjers" – had almost no effect on the majority of Filipinos who believed his accuser.

Also as a result, the Speaker of the House lost his hold on power, ousted by the very men and women with whom he had, in his own time, conspired so many times – weren’t they all together in the midnight proclamation of the incumbent president and vice president, described then as if they were thieves sneaking into the night to do their thing? He tried to mask the ignominy of his fall with "revelations." No matter how true those revelations were, however, the impact of the revelations was for better or worse watered down by the appearance that he was only coming clean because he was no longer part of the power elite.

Then the Senate saw a watering down of its powers, with an apparent blanket protection of "executive privilege" given by the Supreme Court to the besieged Executive. I was hoping that the Puno Court would rise to the occasion the way the US Supreme Court rose to the occasion during the dark days of the Nixon presidency, striking out not in favor of one branch or another but for the loftiest principles that must govern public service. Maybe it did, in its own way – but I have yet to hear profound admiration for the Court’s decision from objective observers and feel that their pronouncement on so important an issue would be something law students for years to come would study and internalize with complete admiration.

In the meantime the chief "witness" in the NBN-ZTE scam continued on his crusade, bringing his message all over town, sometimes meeting a frosty welcome, oftentimes being met as a hero. But his cause is dealt a major blow when Cory Aquino, a major pillar in his fight for truth and justice and good government, withdraws due to her own personal battle with cancer.

And then the public’s attention shifts to focus on a looming crisis in the supply of rice. The cynics and skeptics immediately accuse government of "creating" the crisis to divert attention – not an impossibility if government feels that this would be an easier crisis to address. Of course the administration reacts immediately, and how! It announces programs of over P40 billion – which again got the cynics talking about how some people are sure to make a killing lining their pockets with commissions from the programs to be launched to "address" the rice crisis.

Notice that no one – not the head of the NFA, not the Agriculture secretary – was fired when the rice crisis erupted. Notice, too, that while part of the P40 billion is over P500 million meant for fertilizers, no one has taken major strides to resolve the still pending issue of over P700 million of fertilizer funds apparently diverted by people close to the powers-that-be under a previous program.

In the meantime, the global economy continues to be haunted by what is happening to the US economy, though at the moment we are being told that we have far less reason to worry now since our economy is no longer as tightly tied to the US economy as it was ten, twenty, maybe thirty years back. That may be true, but a slowdown in the US economy will still have a direct impact on our own, not only through our exports but also potentially through a slowdown in the establishment of back office operations that have become a major employment contributor specially to the fresh-out-of-college generation. If the US consumer spends less, there will be less need for after-sales support. Which means less need for people manning hotlines 24/7 – which is what young Filipinos do in call centers all over the place.

And the boom in condominiums that OFWs have been spurring somehow could slow down as well, if the global economy slows down and remittances now amounting to US$ 15 billion contract a bit.

Amid all of these I see a president trying to stay in touch and in charge, parking herself in the Customs Bureau and not leaving till she sees action. Unfortunately, with her own satisfaction rating close to its lowest levels ever, one can only wonder how much a president can achieve if all she can rely on is command and control because persuasion will no longer work.

It is not yet an acute feeling that I feel, but I do sense that ours is a nation adrift, now more than ever, drifting wherever the waters and the winds bring it, with no one really knowing where we are headed. There of course are "landmarks" – 2010 is one such, providing a focus around which could be tied reasons for hope. But even hoping that 2010 will bring much-needed change – dramatic, firm, principled – is not enough to re-energize a population that appears to be worn out from within.