THERE is something cockeyed about how the Gloriagate tape brouhaha has stolen the thunder from the jueteng scandal which so far exposed how incorrigible our government has become.

Was the fuss about the tape a subtle plan by Malacanang bright boys to diffuse the jueteng bomb? Or was it a miscalculated plot by the eager beaver strategists of a scheming opposition man?

The jueteng scandal we believe threatens to be more disastrous to the political survival of the Arroyo administration where her two most important allies, the police and loyalist local governors, are on the verge of nervous breakdown and destitution, ready to self-destruct, or change their loyalty for self-preservation.

What could be more horrifying to the president would be the time when her police officers, including regional and provincial commanders, getting tired of making denials, finally turn the table around and point to Mike, Mikey and Iggy as the masterminds.

The “Hello Garci” tape, on the other hand, is “more manageable” as far as his legal experts and crisis managers are concerned. It involves a relatively lesser number of people who can be stage-managed to salvage the president’s honor, or what’s left of it. The tape itself is inadmissible in court, and its source illegal. Anyway, poll cheating is no longer shocking to the ordinary people because everyone does it every election day. Besides, in Arroyo’s case, the man she allegedly cheated is not exactly the type of a person that the more influential and cause-oriented civil society would take the cudgels for, and lucky for GMA, FPJ is dead, and Vice President Noli de Castro is not a wise successor either. Sooner than later, the tape scandal would die a natural death while the saga of Mike, Mikey and Iggy (these names sound like Walt Disney characters) lives on.

Impeachment? That would not happen until 2007 yet when the swindled electorate would have their chance to dismember the House of pro-Gloria congressmen for an impeachment move to proceed. Impeachment is a numbers game, pure and simple, as recent events (i.e. the case of Supreme Court Justice Hilario Davide, or that of US President Bill Clinton) prove.

But GMA must be warned that the dying fire of the jueteng scandal does not signify that the heat is dead. It will again boil up when the Senate resumes its investigation. On the other hand, expect the House to turn rambunctious anew when the powerless minority desperately pursues to uncover the absurd tape against a phalanx of pro-Gloria legislator-allies, the latter to snatch the issue as non sequitor, ab initio.

With more witnesses waiting to add fire to the jueteng exposes, more provincial governors, police officers, and other local officials will be drawn into the mud, with Mike, Mikey, Iggy, and GMA ending up as the filthiest of them all. Meanwhile, all these scumbags you see shuttling the corridors of power, including fellow members of the media who love to pal around with people of dubious means, are now looking for other sources of moolah since the jueteng payoff was snuffed out by the scandal.