If Garci aint cracked, perhaps he can't be broke

Former Commission on Elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano must be one tough nut to crack. From some of the highest officials who ever walked the corridors of power to the lowliest one-day-one-eats in the urban slums, the book has almost literally been slapped on his face.

To those who, in the unlikeliest of events, do not know him, Garcillano is the Garci in the infamous "Hello Garci" tapes, that illegally acquired wiretap of who seemed to be President Arroyo discussing with who seemed to be Garcillano some matters pertaining to the 2004 elections.

In that election, Arroyo won by more than a million votes over her closest rival, movie actor Fernando Poe Jr., who has since died. The enemies of Arroyo claimed she cheated her way to victory and the tapes proved it.

The tapes themselves are inadmissible as evidence in any court in the Philippines. What they contained also do not bear hard and incontrovertible proof of any fraud. The accusation of fraud thus latches merely on the supposed impropriety of the conversation.

But this is the Philippines where, for all its pretentions as the showcase of democracy in Asia, democracy actually gets its severest beating. For instance, Garcillano and Arroyo have been convicted long before it is even possible to charge them on the basis of the tapes.

Arroyo may definitely be more in the center of the storm than Garcillano, she being the alleged main culprit, Garcillano being only the alleged main accessory, but she is in a far better position to parry the blows than the beleaguered former election official.

That is because Arroyo is the president and has the entire resources of the government at her disposal, to defend herself or otherwise. Garcillano, on the other hand, is now largely a private person.

Even if, out of a sense of being similarly situated, Arroyo may take it upon herself to extend some assistance to Garcillano, she can only do it obliquely. She cannot afford to be caught in any other further dealing with Garcillano, if at all.

That leaves Garcillano virtually alone with scant life support other than his sheer guts. About that, however, there is little doubt as to his supplies being quite ample. You can tell by the way he handles himself during investigation and before cameras that he is one gutsy guy.

Still, his enemies have not given up. The latest attack on his person, or at least on his name, is that he has been using a fake passport. How a fake passport can be tied to poll fraud is hard to imagine. But then, when you have an enemy, you hit him with everything you've got.

So, to the enemies of Garcillano, if the fake passport yarn flies, they can at least go fly a kite. It does not necessarily prove poll fraud, but it can make Garcillano sit longer on the toilet bowl. In the silliness of it all, even that can give certain types an erection.

But what does it really profit some people at this stage to see Garcillano, or even Arroyo, stumble, or even fall. It is too late in the day to derive any benefit out of a proven fraud in a country where fraud happens everyday.

Even if Arroyo is actually ousted on account of the fraud charges and Garcillano is hung or guillotined in public, the only tangible benefit that can be derived from that development is the big psychological and emotional kick their enemies can get out of it.

Translated into any practical and meaningful benefit for this country of 87 million citizens all aching for a better life in the long haul, the product will be zero. The barren womb of a lusty virgin crying out in the dead of night can bring forth no birth.

Garcillano is now busy trying out farming in Mindanao. But he knows the bushes can always spring surprises. It is difficult not to admire the man, not for what he may or may not have done but for his sheer will to go on living where others would have thrown themselves off buildings.