Explain the tapes

Why is President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo refusing to answer the clamor of her supporters and the opposition to answer charges that she cheated during the May 2004 elections? Why doesn’t she explain her supposed conversation with Commission on Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano whom she had earlier appointed regarding her alleged desire to win by more than one million votes over opposition presidential candidate Fernando Poe, Jr.?
In the case of the alleged involvement of her son and brother-in-law in the jueteng payola scandal, she did not hesitate to order her own Department of Justice and the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate. But when the opposition said it would be a whitewash, she asked the independent Office of the Ombudsman to do the investigation and to file charges against her own family members if the evidence warrants it.
But in the case of the wiretapped tapes, she has refused to explain it beyond saying that she will do so “at the appropriate time.” Instead of answering, she had defiantly said that she will serve her full term, adding that she won the elections and did not cheat.
When will the President explain her voice in the tape?
Maybe the President and her assistants are hoping that the storm will just blow over and that the political leaders, the business community and the Filipino people will just forget it if she manages to hold out long enough and not admit to any wrongdoing.
This tactics will not work. Blaming the opposition for triggering this crisis or accusing them of economic sabotage is not an acceptable way out.
In the meantime, the nation is in a state of flux. It seems that everything that she had done to alleviate the sufferings of the Filipino people by drafting an economic plan and other programs would just go to naught. Everything that she will do from now on would be held suspect. The support of her backers and the Filipino people will continue to erode as long as she refuses to explain the alleged cheating in the elections.
The President should stop delaying her answer. Her ability to govern is at stake. Her supporters, in particular, must hear her side so they could have something to use to defend her. There is no other way out.