The ongoing election fraud scandal surrounding President Arroyo is coming to an official close, as the opposition was not able to garner the 1/3 vote necessary to bring an impeachment trial to the Senate.

The Philippine Legislature ended the impeachment process against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Tuesday, finally dismissing all three complaints against her.

While her adversaries reiterated that they were committed to fighting on – and staged the largest street demonstrations since the crisis began – the Legislature’s move is likely to ensure Arroyo’s hold on power after more than three months of political turmoil.

After marathon debates that continued for nearly 24 hours, the majority of the legislators in the 236-member House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to throw out the complaints, in which Arroyo was accused of corruption, electoral fraud and human rights violations.

It could be the end of one of the most bitter political power struggles in the country’s recent history – a crisis that highlighted the rambunctiousness of Philippine democracy and has been blamed for weakening an already faltering economy.

“The Filipino people mark a glorious day in history, when instead of forcing a president out of office through people power, they chose to keep a president through voting in the halls of constitutional democracy,” Arroyo said in a statement on Tuesday.

She described the impeachment process as a “grand display of political maturity,” complimented her opponents for putting up “a good fight” and offered “reconciliation for the national interest.”

The fact that Arroyo can get off so easily without trial, even given the enormous evidence, testifies to the corruptibility of the current system. She got off simply because she has a large majority in the congress and, no matter what, the opposition wouldn’t have been able to garner the votes necessary to bring a trial.

But this definitely won’t be the end of the political turmoil in the country. The opposition won’t let this one go, as it really shouldn’t be. Arroyo is trying to deflect attention from herself directly by going after other big issues like converting the presidential system to a parliamentary one. This isn’t going to work, however. After the people power revolution that put Arroyo into power in the first place, the Philippines remains in a state of general political unrest. The people are going to demand justice, and if the system doesn’t dish it out, then it may be fundamentally changed through more people power.

The problem with people power sometimes is that it leaves the country in a perpetual cycle of downturn, where nobody really respects the constitution as being able to uphold the law. Given that Arroyo isn’t even going up for impeachment, this sentiment may continue to rise quite a bit. Hopefully it won’t come down to that, but it’s always a last resort once all legal means have been exhausted. That’s why the opposition is referring the case to the Supreme Court, where it will investigate the matter completely. If the court refuses, the sentiment will become even worse.

So while the case for impeachment has been officially closed, we’re actually witnessing the silence before the storm.