Realizing the danger, President Arroyo thundered that she was one president that didn’t receive a single centavo from jueteng, implying with the qualifying "one" that other presidents, besides Erap (though still unproved) did.

The opposition, however, warned that jueteng could bring down her administration. One is reminded here of a self-fulfilling prophecy called the "Macbeth prophecy." It goes in tandem with several bishops’ condemnation of "jueteng power," the pernicious influence of jueteng operators in politics and government.

Then there are the witnesses announced by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, which Justice Secretary Gonzales witlessly discredited before they could be presented.

On the other hand, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. asserted that jueteng could be eradicated in three days, weeks, or years (whatever) if the PNP were reformed upon PGMA’s orders. Pimentel was the DILG secretary during the "revolutionary period." How come this wasn’t done?

Meanwhile, the president’s "battered half" is missing, with Malacañang "clueless" about his whereabouts.

In a word, the drama is concentrated on jueteng, while the administration through the Adboard’s advertising campaign is trying to persuade the populace that "conservation of energy" is the real concern of the nation. The administration’s energy could be better conserved, however, by the propaganda of deeds rather than of words.

The opposing shades of the political spectrum are clearly searching for the "tipping point" that will turn the crisis one way or the other. The administration thinks it can find it in the Adboard campaign coupled with various "summits," while the opposition thinks it has found it in the campaign against jueteng.

But the sad fact is that the populace is just standing by, even indifferent to the political struggle, as, to its mind, whichever side wins will most probably have no significance to the daily struggle for survival.