Former Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos finds that he has reasons to smile these days. That?s because the resigned head of the poll body believes that, slowly but surely, his exoneration is finally at hand.

Only yesterday, the Court of Appeals threw out the petition for habeas data filed by Jose ?Joey? de Venecia against Abalos, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and the heads of the Armed Forces and the National Police. The court action seeks to stop the respondents from publicly airing alleged wiretapped conversations made by the son of former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. in connection with the aborted ZTE national broadband deal.

Abalos says the dismissal of the younger De Venecia?s case reflects the weaknesses of the charges against him and the lack of hard evidence to prove his alleged guilt. Recently, the appeals court also junked a petition for habeas corpus filed by another Abalos nemesis, Jun Lozada, who claims he was abducted by government agents upon his arrival at the airport prior to his testifying in the Senate.

Earlier, Abalos also found encouragement in the release of findings by the Department of Justice that there was no overpricing in the contract to construct a nationwide broadband network. While the resigned Comelec chief is not directly involved in the last two cases, he says he sees a pattern emerging: he has been pilloried in the media and has had to quit his post in the firestorm that attended the scandal, but he thinks that the tide is finally turning against those who caused his public humiliation.

?I?m glad that this wiretapping case was thrown out,? Abalos said. ?I don?t even understand why I was being accused of wiretapping or why I was named as a respondent in this particular case. What surprises me is why some people will implicate me in anything, even wiretapping, which I know nothing about.?

The latest case stemmed from the declaration of Enrile during the Senate investigation that he was in possession of transcripts of telephone conversations between the younger De Venecia and Lozada. De Venecia, who owned a company that bid for the broadband contract but who lost out to a Chinese contractor, accused Abalos of being the source of the wiretapped conversations that Enrile said he got from a source.

The alleged wiretapped conversations were never revealed in the Senate. The investigation itself was stalled after it was revealed that Speaker De Venecia allegedly endorsed his son?s company for the deal?a reversal of fortune that eventually led to the ouster of the long-time leader of the House from his post.

?We find acceptable Enrile?s justification for claiming possession of the recording,? the CA said in its 19-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Monina Arevalo-Zenarosa. ?Enrile, as an investigator, was merely feigning possession of contradicting evidence as a legitimate method for the purpose of determining the credibility of the witness. What he was doing was probably a dramatization of a pretense to inquire into the truthfulness of petitioner?s [De Venecia?s] claims.?

But Abalos, who quit as Comelec chief in October 2007, is still waiting for the main case against him?for alleged bribe-giving in connection with his supposed indecent proposal to then Neda chief Romulo Neri?to be dismissed. The case is still with the Ombudsman, who is facing problems of her own right now, and who may not be able to attend to Abalos? case.

For those who may have forgotten, that?s the one where Neri said Abalos told him ?May 200 ka dyan? at the Wack-Wack golf course?something that Abalos denies he ever said. Neri, when he eventually testified, could not say what Abalos meant either, but the statement was made the basis for the bribe-giving case filed against the then chairman of the Comelec anyway.

But even if all the charges against the former Comelec chairman haven?t been dropped yet, Abalos isn?t worried. ?At least things are clearing up,? he says. ?Maybe one day, all the charges against me will be exposed for what they are?baseless and untrue.?

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The big news at the Senate yesterday was about something that didn?t happen, if you can believe that. Senator Panfilo Lacson was supposed to take the floor at the eve of the close of the regular session for yet another of his privilege speeches, but he didn?t.

Perhaps Lacson thought the timing wasn?t right, or perhaps he wasn?t ready. Who knows? But those who are supposed to know about these things say that the senator may still go ahead with his latest expos??when that will happen, nobody can really say.

Expect things to heat up in the Senate once again when Lacson takes the floor. Given the senator?s previous expos?s, he will surely do all he can to make sure this new one explodes with the maximum damage?and the maximum publicity.

And people still wonder why our neighbors have left us so far behind in nearly every field imaginable, except possibly the rowdiness of our so-called democracy. What a country.