PURO EXCUSES: What scares us more as we duck amid the terrorist explosions is the frantic groping of the authorities, including military and police officers, for excuses and explanations for the obvious failure of intelligence.

When the men guarding us start giving excuses instead of security, we are in mortal danger.

Some high-profile officials had elaborate explanations that given our open society they could not have prevented the rash of explosions that had claimed several lives and sown terror the last few days.

There was no need for such lame explanations, gentlemen. We all know that there are certain crimes and acts of violence that virtually nobody can prevent.

When a disturbed individual quietly decides to commit a crime and he has the means and the opportunity in our society’s open space, there is nothing that anybody can do to stop him.

That, we understand. Our security officials and our military and police top brass need not try overwhelming us with explanations of why or how those explosions occurred.

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THE TRUE TEST: The test of the competence and effectiveness of the police is not really in preventing the crime, but in solving it.

The dastardly acts have been committed. Tapos na iyon. It is pointless to dwell on why the explosions happened where and when they did.

The situation calls instead for the authorities to work in earnest in solving the crime, to catch the culprits and bring them before our courts.

Instead of rolling out press releases and modulating their voices on radio while explaining why the explosions could not have been prevented, our officials should assure us that they have preserved the evidence, studied the clues, gathered witnesses and are closing in on the suspects.

It has been several days since the terrorist blasts exploded the myth that everything was under control. Are we any nearer to solving the crime and throwing the perpetrators in jail?

By their hollowness, the updates being announced every day by the authorities are more scary than reassuring. Their investigators are still roaming around with an empty bag, with the bombers still free and ready to plant more explosives if and when they so desire.

This continued failure to even just indicate a good chance of solving, not the prior failure at preventing, the terrorist bombings scares us.

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EMERGENCY POWERS: How many crimes have been committed in the name of “emergency powers”?

You know the answer to that — be it applied to the martial law powers invoked by then President Marcos in fighting the alleged Left-Right conspiracy in the 1970s or the emergency powers delegated to then President Ramos to solve the brownouts slowing down the economy in the early 90s.

It would be an overkill to grant President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo emergency powers just to tackle the explosion binge that seemed to have leaped from Zamboanga to Metro Manila (although we are not yet convinced that the two were perpetrated by the same group).

The excitable gang pushing for emergency powers for the President is prescribing a cure that may just kill the patient, and the doctor.

The Commander-in-Chief has sufficient powers under the Constitution to restore the peace and quiet broken by the spate of explosions exacerbated by the undue panic fanned by plotters who use every little disturbance to destabilize her regime.

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CABINET REVAMP IN 2003: We always go back to the basic point that the President cannot do the job all by herself. The management trick is for the Chief Executive to recruit into her Cabinet what were referred to in the Kennedy days as the best and the brightest.

It is obvious that there are mediocre ones and misfits, obviously backed by politicians and pressure groups, who had slipped into the Cabinet and who are now unable to move in the direction and at the pace that the President wants.

Everybody knows who they are. But it is a tricky operation, even for an astute President, removing from the Cabinet the incompetents and those who are outright liabilities but who have strong backers.

Since nandiyan na yan, we’ve been hoping that the President would make a yearend rating of her team and use the new year as the timing device to bring in a fresh group that will be more effective in carrying out her plans and programs.

Additionally, and importantly, the new team members must possess tested political skills to navigate the choppy waters infested with shoals and sharks.

We have no basis for expecting it, but we are looking forward to a major Cabinet revamp with the onset of 2003, the year leading to the 2004 presidential election.

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REGIME CHANGE AT PBA: It is also time, incidentally, for a regime change at the Philippine Basketball Association. The coming year will usher in a leadership change at the cage body that has fumbled in chasing advertising revenues and ticket sales.

The recent debacle at the Busan Games is being cited for Philippine sport’s own need for a “regime change,” a turnover of leadership and an overhaul of the PBA game plan. How this “regime change” would play out depends largely on who will take over the helm as PBA chairman.

The PBA board of governors convened last week to receive the nomination of candidates for the post to be vacated by Emilio “Jun” Bernardino.

Bernardino, who will retire at the end of the year as the longest-serving commissioner of the league, is back from the 14thAsian Games in Korea. He has not given hints of his leaving the cage scene for good.

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TRIO ON SHORT LIST: Former PBA board chairman Rey Gamboa, former Shell and Purefoods mentor Chito Narvasa, and young lawyer-sportscaster Noli Eala are the leading contenders for the cage body’s chairmanship.

With Gamboa, Narvasa, and Eala on the short list, the consolation is that at least the top PBA post will stay in the PBA family.

Gamboa, who retired as Shell’s vice president for corporate communications last year, served as chairman of the PBA board two years ago and is touted to be a hands-on man. Being a good communicator, he can be an asset in bringing the message of the PBA to its many publics.

His name cropped up some months back as a contender, being an old hand in running the league together with Bernardino’s office.

On the other hand, Narvasa was with the Shell Turbo Chargers and had also coached Purefoods. The former Ateneo player, now a banker and president of the Basketball Coaches Association of the Philippines, can bring in management expertise.

Meanwhile, the 39-year-old Eala, an Ateneo law graduate, is a long-time anchorman with Viva Sports. The youngest of the three contenders, Eala could inject just the right dose of youthful vigor into the league.

Members of the PBA Board of Governors are expected to rush the screening and selection of the new commissioner before the end of the month since planning for the 2003 season should start early.

The vetting comes on the heels of the opening of the All-Filipino Cup, the league’s final tournament for the year, which has opened at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.