EDITORIAL - All we want is the truth

Don’t be surprised by the sorry state of the peso. It merely reflects the sorry state of affairs in this country, where the administration and opposition are engaged in a tug-of-war over a witness who can’t decide which camp is offering him the highest bid.

The saga of Eugenio Mahusay Jr. would be comic if it weren’t so appalling. As admitted by the camp of Sen. Panfilo Lacson, Mahusay has an ax to grind against First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and his secretary Victoria Toh. It was Toh, the Lacson camp said, who had Mahusay fired from Arroyo’s office for theft.

After two months of collaborating with Lacson to draw up detailed accusations of corruption and infidelity against the First Gentleman, Mahusay was presented briefly to the press. He was then taken to a hotel in Tagaytay where, by Lacson’s own account, the witness was placed under protective custody. That can only mean Mahusay was placed under tight guard, with his only chance at privacy an occasional visit to the toilet. Maybe he got spooked. Maybe he regretted his betrayal of his former employer. Whatever the reason, Mahusay left the safehouse the other day in the company of his relatives and Housing Secretary Michael Defensor.

And we thought the First Gentleman is on his own in this scandal, as Malacañang keeps insisting. The presence at the "rescue" of a Cabinet member could have been explained by the fact that Defensor’s police security aide happens to be Mahusay’s brother. But what about those two presidential helicopters with some journalists from Malacañang, ready to whisk the Mahusays away?

After Mahusay’s rescue or abduction – what it was exactly we’re still waiting for him to clarify – there are people who won’t mind sending to the lethal injection chamber all the characters involved in this scandal. Then the peso will stabilize, foreign diplomats can get a good night’s sleep and we can all go back to enjoying Meteor Garden.

A press briefing by Defensor, with a teary-eyed Mahusay beside him, left many questions unanswered – foremost of which was whether the "star witness" would stand by his sworn statement against the First Gentleman. All we want is the truth, but it looks like this isn’t forthcoming in this sordid story.