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A GROUP
of former senior government officials on Thursday
questioned President Arroyo’s moral authority and
capability to govern owing to the corruption scandals
rocking her administration.
Members
of the Former Senior Government Officials (FSGO) group
gathered again on Thursday and said what they are asking
Arroyo is beyond her resignation, but to put into
reality their desire to educate the people on democratic
processes.
“I think
we should look beyond calling for her resignation,”
former civil service commissioner Karina David said,
adding “educating the people, and making them realize
their part as they determine the truth in the present
controversy involving the national broadband network
deal (NBN)” will then make it easy to oust Arroyo.
David
said the group’s statement, that fell short in calling
for the resignation of Arroyo, read at Club Filipino in
Greenhills, San Juan City, Metro Manila, is actually a
much more stronger indictment of the administration than
calling for resignation alone.
“We
express our loss of confidence in her. As a consequence
we question not only her moral authority to govern, but
also her ability to govern given the mounting garbage of
lies and obfuscation that she is constrained to build to
cover up the increasing stench of corruption in her
administration,” said the group’s statement read by
David.
For his
part, former trade minister Vicente Paterno said that
the President’s resignation should also be accompanied
by the resignation of all corrupt officials in the
government, saying that if only the head is cut off then
the roots of corruption will just thrive under a
different leader. The members of the FSGO group also
increased to more than 90 since they first came out last
month. Among the group’s members are the Hyatt 10, the
Arroyo Cabinet members who resigned at the height of the
“Hello, Garci” scandal in 2005, and officials of former
Presidents Ferdinand Marcos, Corazon Aquino and Fidel
Ramos.
They
said Arroyo’s continued refusal to serve the people’s
demand for the truth in the NBN controversy “is
emblematic of the government’s reaction to past
scandals” including the P729- million fertilizer scam
and “Hello, Garci” among others.
“President Arroyo must act to help bring out the full
truth about this deal if her hands are truly clean. The
Arroyo presidency must shelter the truth or it will be
judged as a fortress for lies,” the FSGO group said,
lamenting the way “the President’s spokesmen were
summarily dismissing these demands. Later her advisers
even criticized and threatened us for making these
demands.”
“We
conclude that President Arroyo refuses to serve the
people’s demand for truth about a matter of great public
interest. We see in this refusal, despite ample chances
and many sound reasons, a clear basis for our people to
find her complicit with and, in fact, at the center of,
the corruption and cover-up of the NBN-ZTE deal,” they
said.
The
group said that although the President has scrapped
Executive Order (EO) 464, the revocation “does not serve
the truth if acting Commission on Higher Education
chairman Romulo Neri continues to invoke executive
privilege and does not testify.”
They
also said it is contrary to the spirit of transparency
that the administrations says it wants in all public
transaction, they said that “all records of the NBN-ZTE
project have not been submitted to the Senate.”
The
revocation of EO 464 and Neri’s testimony were two of
the five demands they issued on March 4 along with the
suspension of Secretary Leandro Mendoza and Assistant
Secretary Lorenzo Formoso, the DOTC being the lead
proponent of the project.
They
also called for the suspension of Environment Secretary
Joselito Atienza Jr; the National Police chief, Director
Gen. Avelino Razon Jr.; Deputy Executive Secretary
Manuel Gaite; the airport deputy general manager for
security, Angel Atutubo; the deputy director of the
Police Protection and Security office, Senior Supt. Paul
Mascariñas and all those involved in the alleged attempt
to prevent ZTE witness Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada Jr. from
testifying.
Likewise, called for a stop to any further attempts by
the justice and environment department, the National
Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Internal
Revenue to harass Lozada and those who are testifying in
the Senate investigation into the NBN-ZTE deal.
Aside
from David, present at the news conference were Paterno,
former socioeconomic planning secretary Cielito Habito,
former central bank governor Jose Cuisia Jr., former
antipoverty commission chairman Imelda Nicolas, former
presidential peace adviser Teresita Deles, former
antipoverty commission chairman Marietta Goco, former
tourism secretary Narzalina Lim, former press secretary
Rod Reyes, former presidential adviser on political
affairs Lito Banayo, former education undersecretary
Juan Miguel Luz, former budget secretary Cesar Purisima,
former statistics office administrator Tomas Africa,
former national treasurer Leonor Briones,former trade
undersecretary Sostenes Campillo, former Philippine
Deposit Insurance Corp. president Norberto Nazareno,
former agrarian reform secretary Philip Ella Juico,
former airport general manager Guillermo Cunanan, former
Presidential Commission on Good Government commissioner
Quintin Doromal, former finance secretary Ernest Leung,
former agrarian reform undersecretary Conrado Navarro
and Hector Soliman.
Meanwhile, the National Police predicted that Friday’s
anti-Arroyo rally at Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila will
be peaceful like previous ones.
Thousands are expected to attend Thursday’s protest
action by students and members of left-leaning group
Bansang Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).
Chief
Supt. Roberto Rosales,
Manila police
commander, said they are counting on the assurance of
leaders of student groups and Bayan that the rally at
the Liwasang Bonifacio, that is scheduled to start at
3 p.m., would be orderly as they have promised during a meeting
with Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and other top city police
officials.
Still,
Rosales said some 2,000 policemen will be deployed to
guard the vicinity of the rally and all the other
strategic sites in the city.
Meanwhile, Director Geary Barias, Metro Manila police
commander, said an additional 1,000 policemen will be
sent to augment Rosales’s men.
Barias
said that as agreed upon with the rally organizers, only
25 policemen will be allowed around Liwasang Bonifacio,
while the remaining force would be scattered at
Mehan Garden, which is
near the site and around Malacañang, particularly
Mendiola.
He also
said the Metro Manila police would go on a heightened
alert starting 6 p.m. on Thursday, still as a part of
their preparation for the rally.
Also,
the Armed Forces would be on a standby, ready to send in
its troops in case they are needed by the police.
The
chief of the Armed Forces Public Information Office, Lt.
Col. Bartolome Bacarro, said the National Capital Region
Command (NCRCom) under Maj. Gen. Fernando Mesa, will act
as an augmentation force to the Metro Manila rally, a
role which it had performed during the successive
rallies in Makati City which were attended by massive
anti-Arroyo groups.
As of
Thursday afternoon, Bacarro said they were still
awaiting orders from higher military officials whether
their command in Metro Manila should go on a higher
alert.
Bacarro
assured that the NCRCOM is ready to respond in case some
groups would take advantage of the demonstration. (With
R. Acosta) |
