Thus declared Malacañang as it shrugged off the investigation by the Senate Committee on National Defense and Security headed by Sen. Rodolfo Biazon on the "Hello Garci" wiretapping controversy starting Thursday, Jan. 19.

"The worst that the heavily recycled wiretap issue could bring is already over, and our detractors will gain nothing in the national interest by kicking this dead horse," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.

Bunye said that even local and international investors have aired the view that the country’s economy is improving and it will further improve if political bickerings end or minimized.

He expressed hopes that the people, particularly the opposition, will refrain from committing acts that could hamper the country’s economic growth.

"I don’t think we will ever be competitive against the rest of the countries in the Asian region if we will continue to be disunited," Bunye said.

Meanwhile, Krusadang Bayan Laban sa Jueteng (KBLJ) Chairman Archbishop Oscar Cruz yesterday questioned the adminstration’s capability of ridding the country of its many problems.

"If the President cannot stop illegal gambling operations in the country, then how can she rid the country of other ills such as graft and corruption, terrorism, smuggling, and massacres?" Cruz asked. "It cannot even touch any gambling lord, how could it really go after big drug lords and key crime lords?" he added.

He said that despite many actions created to fight illegal gambling, it still continues to thrive.

"Several tasks forces have been ostensibly created. Many countermoves have been already made. Numerous claims of success have been made once too often. But illegal gambling merrily goes on. Gambling lords continue to enjoy life. The poor become even poorer missing their meals more and more," he said. (E.T. Suarez and Leslie Ann G. Aquino)