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By James Konstantin Galvez, Reporter
Threats, just like promises, apparently are made
to be broken.
Former senior government officials on March 4
warned that they will join calls for the resignation of President
Gloria Arroyo if she failed to address within 10 days their demands
for better governance, including stamping out alleged corruption in
her government. The ultimatum lapsed Thursday.
Yesterday, they blinked, apparently satisfied
with President Arroyo’s lifting of Executive Order 464 last week.
This document bars members of the executive and military and police
brass from testifying in congressional investigations without
permission from the President. The former officials had said the
order negates Mrs. Arroyo’s vow to eradicate alleged graft under
her watch.
“I think we should look beyond calling for
resignation,” said Karina Constantino-David. She added that this
statement is a stronger indictment of the administration than
calling for resignation alone.
The ex-senior officials, during a press
conference at Club Filipino in San Juan City, Metro Manila, said
they have lost their trust and confidence in the President’s
capability to govern and to squash alleged graft in her
administration.
“We express our loss of confidence in her,”
said David, former Civil Service Commission chairman, who read the
group’s statement. “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 obfuscations that she is constrained to
build to cover up the increasing stench of corruption in her
administration.”
Malacañang belittled the statement.
“These ‘Ex-Men’ had been reduced to
rumormongers. Their statement is irresponsible and sweeping,”
deputy presidential spokesman Lorelei Fajardo said in a statement.
“It is easy to point a finger, but where is the proof?”
Deputy Press Secretary Anthony Golez agreed.
“Enough evidence should be brought to the proper courts [in order
for the government to be able to] prosecute wrongdoers to have
closure to these controversies. Proper steps must be taken.”
Golez said Mrs. Arroyo has instituted programs
that help the Ombudsman and the courts to prosecute graft cases. He
cited the President’s doubling of the Ombudsman’s budget to
effectively fight corruption.
Still, the former officials faulted the
President for allegedly refusing to act on their demands.
“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,” it said. The group was referring to
the aborted National Broadband Network deal with China’s
telecommunications giant ZTE Corp.
“She [Mrs. 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,” according to the ex-officials.
The former senior officials charged that Mrs.
Arroyo has failed to implement checks and balances in her
administration, resulting in many past scandals “to descend to a
limbo of unresolved crimes against the public trust.”
David said the resignation of the President is
not the one and only option. Rather, she added, the best thing is to
educate first the people, especially on democratic processes.
The ex-officials chided Mrs. Arroyo’s
spokesmen and advisers for “summarily dismissing these demands
[for better governance] and for even criticiz[ing] and threaten[ing]
us for making these demands.”
The group said the President scrapping Executive
Order 464 “does not serve the truth if acting Commission on Higher
Education Chairman Romulo Neri continues to invoke executive
privilege and does not testify [in the Senate and the Justice
department].” Neri was the director general of the National
Economic and Development Authority when the $330-million national
broadband deal was transacted last year. He had bared an alleged
bribery attempt on him in exchange for his approval of the deal.
Neri has since invoked executive privilege in snubbing the senators
and the Justice department.
The former senior officials said the government
betrays the spirit of transparency that it says it wants in all
public transactions by failing to submit to the Senate “all
records” of the broadband deal.
The revocation of Executive Order 464 and
Neri’s testimony were two of the five demands they made more than
a week ago along with the suspension of Transportation Secretary
Leandro Mendoza and Transportation Assistant Secretary Lorenzo
Formoso. The Department of Transportation and Communications was the
lead proponent of the national broadband network project.
The ex-officials also called for the suspension
of Environment Secretary Joselito Atienza Jr., Philippine National
Police chief Avelino Razon Jr., Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel
Gaite, Senior Supt. Paul Mascariñas, Angel Atutubo (deputy chief of
Ninoy Aquino International Airport), and all those involved in the
alleged attempt to prevent Rodolfo Lozada Jr. from testifying in the
Senate. Lozada linked the President’s husband, Jose Miguel
“Mike” Arroyo, and former poll chief Benjamin Abalos Sr. to
alleged brokering for kickbacks from the deal. Both denied the
allegation.
In their statement, they jotted down past
scandals that hit the Arroyo administration, including the
“fertilizer scam,” “election cheating,” and “shopping bags
of cash in Malacañang.”
“The NBN-ZTE scandal is just the latest
monster in a larger pile of garbage from previous scandals,” the
former senior officials said.
“The responsible exercise of presidential
power is an important instrument for serving our nation’s
interests. A President that leads with righteousness and wisdom is a
great blessing. A President that serves evil is a terrible curse. To
secure a blessing and avoid a curse in the presidency, the founding
leaders of our democracy established a system of checks and
balances,” they added.
Ex-Trade chief Vicente Paterno, a member of the
group, said Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation should also be accompanied
by that of all corrupt officials in the government.
-- With Angelo S. Samonte
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