|
SOME hate the Lakas-Kampi crowd now in power so much.
They want to get rid of President Arroyo and Vice-President de
Castro through people power. They want to ignore the Constitution
and set up a new order.
Thank God that’s not what the
more than 80 members of FSGO want.
The Former Senior Government
Officials want a constitutional succession in case the Office of the
President becomes vacant. And they “will help Vice-President Noli
de Castro be a good president.”
They want to respect the desire
of the majority of the Filipino people for the political crisis to
be solved constitutionally. They will then settle for Vice-President
de Castro—even if some of them would prefer someone else—in the
event President Arroyo resigns or gets ousted.
Among the FSGO are the brightest,
most accomplished and most virtuous men and women of our country.
The know how the cancer of greed, corruption, treason and
mismanagement–grown worse under the current dispensation–has
weakened our country and brought it to the present pass of a
possible civil war. That and not a lust for power drives them to
dare confront President Arroyo with a memorial—and an ultimatum.
They want her to carry out their
recommendation on what she should do to fight corruption.
They want her to do the following
five things by Monday March 10. That date is five days after Tuesday
March 4 when they presented their memorial at the Club Filipino:
(1) Order former National
Economic and Development Authority Director General Romulo Neri to
resume his testimony at the Senate “without any restrictions or
limitations.”
(2) Order the release and
delivery to the Senate of all public records pertaining to the
NBN-ZTE deal, chiefly the minutes of the NEDA board meetings on the
project.
(3) Suspend Transportation and
Communications Secretary Leandro Mendoza and Assistant Secretary
Lorenzo Formoso III. The FSGO’s Vicente Paterno, a former senator
and minister of trade, explained that their suspension is necessary
to prevent them from impeding their subordinates from telling the
truth.
(4) Suspend Environment
Secretary Lito Atienza, Philippine National Police Director General
Avelino Razon, Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel Gaite, assistant
airport general manager Angel Atutubo, Police Supt. Paul Mascariñas
and all officials who allowed or caused the abuse of the human
rights of whistleblower Rodolfo Lozada Jr. when he arrived from Hong
Kong.
(5) Stop any state agencies from
further harassing Lozada and other witnesses.
“The President must do
these, or the people will make their judgment and act on the basis
of their convictions,” the FSGO’s memorial says. If she ignores
the ultimatum and rejects the recommendations, the FSGO would then
join the clamor for the President’s resignation or ouster.
They would then campaign to
persuade other forces in our society to act. Their campaign will
most likely be effective. Many churchmen, military and police
officers, businessmen and leaders of academe would be swayed to move
against Mrs. Arroyo.
VP is obliged to act
Vice-President Noli de Castro has
unique duties for the salvation of the presidency and the Republic.
He must not appear to be less
than qualified to succeed. That is what his detractors want the
public to think.
It is his unique patriotic duty
to persuade President Arroyo to carry out the FSGO’s
recommendation.
He is also uniquely duty-bound to
draw up a list of other reform measures that President Arroyo must
take immediately. Among these: (a) to make her anti-corruption
drive more drastically effective and visibly sincere; (b) to
make the proceedings of the Cabinet and the executive departments
more honest and transparent; and (c) to take steps to make the 2010
elections fraud-free and efficient by appointing a trustworthy and
generally acceptable chairman of the Commission on Elections and new
commissioners to fill existing and forthcoming vacancies.
He must also hold meetings with
the FSGO, the CBCP, the Protestant prelates and Muslim ulama to
consult them on actual immediate measures they wish taken to improve
governance —including the replacement of cabinet and sub-cabinet
officials by men and women who will perform their duties with total
honesty, transparency and patriotic devotion to duty.
He must present these to
President Arroyo and then help her carry out the recommended
reforms.
The Vice-President must also make
himself even more ready than he is now to assume the presidency, to
become acceptable to those who consider him as much their target for
removal as the President.
Taking steps to make himself a
more qualified and acceptable replacement for Mrs. Arroyo—in the
event that there is a vacancy in Malacañang—is a duty he must
perform. No one else but the Vice-President at this critical moment
of our history has these specific duties. Fulfilling them will deny
victory to those who would tear up the Constitution. He must support
those—like the FSGO and the CBCP–who wish to uphold good
governance, the rule of law, constitutional succession and the reign
of virtue in our Republic.
|
