Once again, with all the drama at the House of Representatives and now with the early-morning revelations of a weary Jun Lozada, people are beginning to wonder whether we have reached that stage in a drama called the denouement.

Denouement, a final part in which everything is made clear and no questions or surprises remain.

Sometimes I wonder why I am never at the scene of the excitement when things happen. So many times I would be abroad, or at least out of town, when political bombshells are exploded, troop movements are reported governments fall. I remember being in Davao - at the Marco Polo Hotel actually - at the height of the siege of Malacañang which has come to be called "Edsa 3". Tuned in to ANC all I could do was listen to former Erap spokesman Jesus Crispin Remulla (now Representative Remulla of Cavite) explain why the actuations of the newly installed Arroyo government made the "uprising" inevitable.

On another occasion I was in Atlanta, Georgia, when the standoff at the Marines headquarters occurred two years ago, around the time that we were supposed to be marking another anniversary of the first Edsa. That time I could only gather information through texts, expensive phone calls back to Manila, as well as spotty reporting by CNN as well as by the BBC.

Again when Danny Lim and Antonio Trillanes decided to "check into" the Peninsula Hotel, I was on the road in Hong Kong on the way to the Macau Ferry Terminal. Again it took texts and calls to Manila for me to find out what was happening.

Yesterday I was in the airport checking in for a flight when texts started coming in about Lozada being on ANC. And then, as the day wore on, more texts calling for people to come and show moral support somehow - and again I was too far away to do anything but read online news, watch the CNN and BBC for coverage, and just wait and wonder.

Wonder again whether this is "it".

This may not be "it" - President Arroyo may indeed prove every critic wrong and hold on until the last day of her term in 2010 - but I cannot escape the feeling that every additional political bombshell - small, as in the case of ousted Speaker Jose de Venecia, or potentially big, as in the case of the much-awaited testimony today of Jun Lozada - that each of these only serve to add up to ensure that any attempt to provide the President the opportunity to stay in power longer than 2010 will result in considerable, if not in fact massive public opposition.

This is what I call the period of "tolerance". The quietude should not be misinterpreted by anyone - most specially by the people closest to the President - as indication that she has the public's support behind her.

This may also not be "it" - but the way Malacañang handles this most recent crisis situation can change the dynamics of the situation greatly. And frankly it has not been doing a good job so far.

I was watching the TV coverage of the press conference called by Secretaries Ignacio Bunye and Lito Atienza, together with PNP chief Avelino Razon, and I was amazed at the "withering fire" they had to take from members of the Malacañang Press Corps. This may be an unfair statement, but I have never considered the Malacañang Press Corps a very combative one, for the simple reason that incurring the ire of a big shot in the Palace could very well mean your being taken out of the Palace beat. And to many, being given the Palace beat is a plum assignment, hopefully not because of the "biyayas" that being close to the powers-that-be can mean for a reporter.

But this time around the press corps was quite pushy, not accepting at face value the initial responses that the three gentlemen would give them. Each of the three tried to do his darnest best in handling the "explosive" questions posed them (such as "So who is lying, Mr. Lozada or Malacañang?") but it was clear that the three gentlemen were on a very hot bench and their tense smiles were a dead giveaway.

It will come down to this, actually: a battle of spin between the Palace and the rest of the world. I did not say the Senate nor did I refer to the political opposition - because actually what the Palace has been battling since Lozada arrived and was supposedly whisked away by the PNP has been media itself as it tried to report the unfolding events as best it could. And when it is media in general that you begin to accuse of bias, or of misrepresenting the facts, or of distorting the true picture, then in my book you've already lost half of the battle.

So is this "it"? Will the Lozada testimony today before the Senate be the missing "smoking gun" that could topple the Arroyo administration?