MANILA, 18 February 2008 — Nearly 60 former officials of four administration yesterday joined hands and called for the Cabinet of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign, stoking further political turbulence yesterday amid corruption allegations that have battered her presidency.

The ex-officials from previous administrations, including former Arroyo Cabinet members, made the public appeal after attending a mass led by Roman Catholic groups and ex-President and democracy icon Corazon Aquino to show support for a star witness in a new corruption scandal.

More than 3,000 protesters attended the mass at the De La Salle Greenhills gymnasium in suburban San Juan.

About 10,000 protesters jammed the main avenue in the city’s financial district Friday in an opposition-led rally to demand Arroyo’s resignation.

Close to 60 former Cabinet officials from the Aquino, Ramos, Estrada, and Arroyo governments called on incumbent officials to “cut clean” and to emulate Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada Jr. by exposing wrongdoings in government.

“We call on all those who can no longer endure this wrongful governance, with its structures of evil and unmoderated greed. It’s time to cut clean. It’s time to go. Tama na. Sobra na (Enough is enough. Now is the time),” said the former officials in a statement read by former ambassador to Washington Albert del Rosario.

“We call on all government officials — Cabinet secretaries, undersecretaries, heads of agencies — who know about these anomalous transactions to join the heroic stand of Jun Lozada to come forward and speak out,” the statement said.

The former Cabinet executives also called on “all those who know about extrajudicial killings and disappearances to go public and tell the truth.”

Lozada, a government consultant, publicly exposed alleged large-scale bribery in a $330 million government broadband contract being investigated by the opposition-dominated Senate.

The former officials said they were alarmed by the alleged abuse of presidential powers, including the purported use of security forces “to strangle the truth.”

Lozada has alleged that government security men held him briefly as he arrived from a foreign trip, apparently to prevent him from testifying, prompting him to decide to seek Senate protection and testify. Police have denied the allegation.

Speaking of Arroyo, Teresita Quinto-Deles, former head of the National Anti-Poverty Commission, said: “We were hoping she’d be struck by lighting so she’d come to her senses, but that never happened. We cannot see two more years (of this administration). The people have lost hope that she (Arroyo) will be hit by lightning and be converted. It doesn’t seem that it is ever going to happen.”

Among those at the mass were former vice president Teofisto Guingona, former Senate president Franklin Drilon, former House Speaker Jose De Venecia, former cabinet secretaries, Senators Benigno Aquino III and Manuel Roxas II, and Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim.

Also present was de Venecia’s son, Joey, who first exposed the alleged overprice of the $329-million contract between the government and China’s ZTE Corp.

Arroyo’s former finance secretary, Cesar Purisima, former finance secretary Roberto de Ocampo, former Central Bank governor Jose Cuisia, and Makati Business Club head Alberto Lim also came.

Arroyo spokeswoman Lorelei Fajardo rejected the call for defections of the president’s officials, and appealed for unity.

Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo said that government officials, who have been performing well in their duties, were not about to quit the Arroyo administration.

Opposition spokesman Adel Tamano said a bigger protest against Arroyo would be held on Feb. 25, the anniversary of the army-backed 1986 “people power” revolt that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Political tensions heightened after Lozada emerged two weeks ago, weeping and looking frightened on nationwide TV as he made the allegations.

Arroyo has survived three impeachment bids and at least three coup plots since coming to power in 2001 and political analysts have said she will likely see out the remainder of her term because she has the support of the military and the lower house of Congress.

Scott Harrison, a risk consultant, said Arroyo’s position was safe for now.

“It has to go a lot further than this before she has something serious to worry about,” said Harrison, managing director of Pacific Strategies and Assessments.

“Today Cory (Aquino) did not call for Arroyo to resign, that’s significant.”

Aquino, who was propelled to the presidency in 1986 after Marcos was overthrown in a people power revolt, also urged other officials to emulate Lozada.

“I want all of us Filipinos to be united again. If we can get together we will also see a bright future for our country,” Aquino told the cheering congregation, who finished the mass with a protest song and clenched fists. Harrison said Arroyo’s position would be only be jeopardized if a senior Arroyo official called for her downfall, or the powerful Catholic Church spoke out strongly against her.

But allegations of multimillion dollars worth of kickbacks have outraged many middle-class Filipinos.

“We are here not only to support Lozada, because we believe there is corruption we have to do something about it and let the truth come out,” said Antonio Luistro, a father of five, at the yesterday’s church service.

Opposition groups are hoping the protests will gather steam.

“We are seeing a lot of the middle class, businessmen and professionals,” said Ronald Llamas, the head of Akbayan, a civil society group. “In the past we had a hard time convincing them to join us. Now they are voluntarily joining in.” (With input from AP & Inquirer News Service)