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By Angelo S. Samonte, Reporter
President Gloria Arroyo said her
administration refuses to condone corruption and is taking seriously
the latest allegations of graft in the aborted $330-million national
broadband project.
“We do not want to tolerate
corruption,” President Arroyo on Friday told a meeting of the
Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines and the Manila
Overseas Press Club in Makati City. “There is no room in the
development of our country when so much remains to be done to invest
in the nation.”
The latest allegations were again
raised by the political opposition and militants in a rally also on
Friday in the city. They involved Mrs. Arroyo’s husband, Jose
Miguel “Mike” Arroyo, and a top ally of theirs, resigned poll
chief Benjamin Abalos Sr. Both were implicated by witness Rodolfo
“Jun” Lozada Jr. in alleged brokering for bribes from the
broadband deal. They have denied the charges.
The President admitted that
battling graft takes time.
“It is a sad fact that the
Philippines has a legacy of political corruption,” she said.
“While that legacy will not be erased overnight, we have made
tremendous strides. We have made anticorruption one of the key areas
of focus for reform in the remainder of [my] term.”
To show that her administration
is not dismissive of the scandal arising from the broadband project,
she pointed to her immediate scrapping of the project “after
proper consultation with the government of China, our biggest export
market.” The broadband project will have been undertaken by the
Philippine government and China’s ZTE Corp. The President scrapped
the project last year.
Mrs. Arroyo said she had ordered
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez to investigate those implicated in
the controversy who are not within the jurisdiction of the
Ombudsman. She added that she cannot comment more on it until
reviews of the issue are complete.
“But I trust that the Ombudsman
[Merceditas Gutierrez] will investigate this issue thoroughly, and
that she will ensure a transparent process in doing so,” the
President said.
Mrs. Arroyo said such allegations
against her administration and previous ones are not new because
they are the result of the country’s political culture. She,
however, added that she hopes the charges over kickbacks in the
broadband project will not be played by her critics as a
“political football.”
The President said she organized
the Anti-Red Tape Task Force and the Procurement Transparency Group
also last year to show the public that the government is serious in
combating corruption. This initiative, she added, links the business
sector, academe and the church to implement reforms in the
bureaucracy.
Mrs. Arroyo appealed to her
critics to shun excessive politicking because, she said, it will
create further instability and impact on the government’s pro-poor
programs.
“We call on political leaders
of all parties and preferences to look to our future and ensure
stability for the sake of the nation. Let us put aside partisan
wrangling as candidates jockey for the presidency,” she added. She
said she will step down after finishing her term in 2010, when
elections will be held to vote for her successor.
In October 2007, Mrs. Arroyo
ordered a separate inquiry into claims that lawmakers and other
government officials were paid more than $2.5 million in bribes to
stop an impeachment attempt against her.
She has survived two previous
impeachment attempts over allegations of vote-rigging and
corruption. The political opposition has accused her of cheating in
the 2004 presidential elections, which she won.
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