In the last couple of weeks, we've had too many "sorrys" going around town.  Starting with GMA's ill-advised "I'm sorry" that opened a Pandora's Box and turned it into a full-blown resign or impeach call.

Added to that, Raul Gonzalez's nasty remark about Mrs. Aquino's daughter, which prompted GMA to say sorry to Kris.  Then, of course, Cesar Purisima's "Mea Culpa" to the Supreme Court's TRO on the EVAT.

What he should really be sorry about is the unnecessary spectacle of resigning that aggravated the already precarious economic situation we're in today.  Being a hired professional, it was definitely uncalled for.

He should have remained a professional and simply left if he didn't agree with his boss.  As professionals, these economic managers should protect the economy instead of starring in political drama specials.

The economy should be protected, or at least insulated, as much as possible from the political crisis that the country is experiencing.  That's what our guests—the new economic team—in last Friday's MOPC forum assured us.

They are working hard to undo the damage.  The economy has to be tended to no matter what the political situation is.  Otherwise, we will all be sorry if the economy gets out of control.  The new economic team proves we still have people who truly care about this country.

As Peter Favila—the new DTI Secretary—said, they are there to do the job and stay away from the politics as much as possible.  Their efforts are commendable during these difficult times.

Customs Commissioner Balong Arevalo, whom I have known for many years, will do a fine job.  He said that in the event he encounters political pressure from his commander-in-chief, as a professional, he will just leave without fanfare.

That is why it was extremely disappointing and absolutely wrong for Cesar Purisima and Johnny Santos to have done what they did.  The worse part is they reportedly even flew to Hong Kong and presumed Noli de Castro was going to be their new boss.

In the first place, they were hired as professionals to take care of the economy and not as political advisers.  They thought they were the saviors of the economy, but soon after, they turned out to be the economic clowns.

As I've said before, the impeachment process may be a painful and long process.  Nevertheless, we have to go through with it.  We have to run it through its paces to show the world that the rule of law prevails in this country and that we follow a process.

No matter how true Ping Lacson's SONA sounds, we have to prove all of these allegations to show a semblance of the rule of law.  This is what foreign observers are waiting for.

If it is shown, while the impeachment is going on, that GMA is guilty then voluntary resignation, obviously, becomes a viable option.  It is clear, however, she isn't ready to join Joseph Estrada and his ducks in Tanay at this time.

There are almost four million Filipinos living in the United States today who are sorry to have a country run like hell by Filipinos.  As far as they're concerned, President Quezon's comment had come true a long time ago.

But just the same, we should really stop being sorry for ourselves.  We've just had too many sorry situations.  From the hundreds of e-mails I receive every month, one that stood out came from a reader from Davao City, Juan Deiparine. He wrote:

"If 9 pesos out of every 10 pesos of government revenue goes to debt service, there isn't any money for infrastructure or for pump-priming the economy.  There is even hardly enough for government salaries and overhead.

If we were a patient, we would be under life-support.  If we were a corporation, we would be under Chapter 11.  No one can govern under these circumstances.  Only someone with enough charisma and respect in the international community, someone with the stature of a Nelson Mandela, would be able to do something.

Because debt relief is the only viable way out.  The Aquino Administration had international goodwill.  But it quickly squandered all its political capital and never did anything about the debt.  As a matter of fact, it made the situation worse by borrowing more and mothballing the nuclear plant which could now have saved us a lot of dollars in imported bunker oil and fuel.

We missed so many golden opportunities in the past and now we are being hounded by these mistakes.  We were lulled by the low oil prices in the 1990s, and now we are blindsided by all-time-high energy prices without any comprehensive energy policy."

We have squandered a lot of opportunities since 1986 when the world looked up to this country because it changed a government through the first real People Power.  But the People Power that ousted Joseph Estrada didn't sit well with foreign observers because as reported by Time Magazine, it was a mob rule.  Today, Newsweek has already hinted that any move to change the government without due process can be described as a clown rule.

We now have to move forward.  First and foremost, we have to start by really doing something about the electoral system in this country.  We were sorry for not doing it right and computerizing the system, instead we used the "Hello Garci System" which brought us into this mess.

We should start doing something about structural changes.  Whatever form of government we may have, structural changes have to be made.  For example, all of these legal issues involving the Manila Hotel and Amari, and now NAIA3 have reverberated all over the world because of contracts that have been reversed by judicial intervention.

The inability to keep investments is what we should be most sorry about.  Foreign investors worry about investing precisely because economic matters are, more often than not, decided by the Supreme Court.  The Constitution simply allows it.

No matter which way we look at it, many of the things we have done in the past need to be redirected.  Strangely enough, this political situation we're in today gives us the opportunity to consider making major changes.

But at the same time, we have to test the impeachment process even if it takes a great deal of time, money and energy.  We have to do it right this time or we'll always be sorry.

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Email: babeseyeview@hotmail.com

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