What more is there to know about it? Many of us have heard the whole tape over and over again. Most have heard the more relevant parts. There is no doubt whose voices were recorded. There is no doubt that the 2004 elections were stolen from Fernando Poe, Jr. who had not enough evil in him to suspect that his opponent could actually cheat her way to the presidency and would do so.

Actually, the defeat of FPJ was not solely from the cheating. If there had been fewer candidates in that election, the cheating might not have succeeded.

At any rate, I cannot imagine what more we can find out from a re-investigation of the case. We all know what happened. There is no need to find out any more facts. They have all been established.

What I want to know is this: What will anyone do about it? If there is nothing that anyone will do about this, why even bother with an investigation? We already know what happened.

Will the Senate investigate the story of Vidal Doble? Senator Miriam Santiago is correct that Doble is not a credible witness. He has told his story several times and it has changed with each telling. Why should his most recent version of the events be received with more credibility this time around?

What will the Senate accomplish with its re-investigation?

Thus, it looks to me like a waste of time. There are many more important things that the Senate should look at.

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On whether Smart Telecoms itself is doing any tapping of cell phones, I tend to believe Mon Isberto over Vidal Doble. There is equipment to do this but the equipment is not available to anyone not connected with law enforcement. Cellular Monitoring Systems are classified as COMINT or communications intelligence technology. These can be used to capture cellular conversations.

Cellular Intercept and Monitoring Systems can be purchased in the United States but these are what are known as Title 18 Products. This means that they are restricted and reserved for authorized agents of government. Thus, for anyone to be allowed to buy these for use in the Philippines, it has to be the Philippine government that will do the purchasing. Let us keep Smart out of this story. I am sure that it is not in the business of tapping any phones – landlines or cellulars.

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When the Secretary of Justice threatens to build a case and file charges against a senator and the reason he gives is "It’s tit for tat. They should have let the sleeping dogs lie," there is something very wrong with the justice secretary’s concept of what government is about.

It is apparent that he has no concept of what justice is or what his job is. He is a mere spear carrier for his mistress. He sees his duty to be to protect her at all costs. He has no business being a secretary of justice. How can he be when he is obviously so partisan that he announces to us all that he will use his office and his influence to punish the political adversaries of the administration?

Apparently, too, in the event that anyone in the administration commits a crime or runs afoul of the law, this Justice secretary will go out of his way to protect that criminal.

With someone like that for our Justice secretary, how can we expect anything good to come out of this government?

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The revelations of Congressman Thomas Dumpit of La Union that the phones in Malacañang of President Joseph Estrada were tapped by the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines shows just how wide was the plot to remove Erap. Dumpit was then with the Presidential Security Group (PSG).

Clearly, many in the military were in on the plot. That explains why Gloria Arroyo who was among the main plotters against Erap and the main beneficiary is so nervous about people in the military who might move against her, No wonder that she over-reacts to things like the Oakwood incident and the Marines’ unauthorized movements two years ago. She knows how disloyal the military really is. She learned that when she was plotting against President Estrada.

According to Dumpit, he told Erap that there was a bug in his office but that the President did nothing about it. That may have been an error on Erap’s part that eventually led to the plotters succeeding against him.

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How could the Management Committee (ManCom) of the NCAA suspend a player for joining the draft for a professional league? That does not make him a professional until he actually starts playing for the team in the pro league. Besides, there is no rule in the NCAA against a player preparing for his future after graduating from his college basketball playing days.

It is a sad commentary on how much importance we give to basketball when the school had to get a temporary restraining order (TRO) from the courts just so the player could play.

Sadly, this country will never become a real power in the game of basketball. Most of us Pinoys just do not have the height and the heft to excel in the game. Yet, we pour so much of our energies into the game. What a truly useless effort when there are so many sports in which Pinoys excel but which are not getting the attention that they deserve.

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