MANILA, 6 March 2008 — A day after more than 80 former Cabinet members and senior government officials issued an angry demand to shape up, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday revoked a controversial order that had blocked Cabinet members and other officials from testifying in congressional inquiries.

“Effective immediately, I am revoking Executive Order 464,” Arroyo said in a press statement after a meeting with Roman Catholic bishops, who have condemned widespread graft in her government.

With the scrapping of the gag order, more witnesses are expected to appear in an investigation by the Senate into allegations of $130 million worth of kickbacks in a $329 million government telecoms deal with China’s ZTE.

Opposition groups and an irate citizenry have accused Arroyo of covering up for officials and her husband, who has been linked to the controversy. Both Arroyo and her husband have denied any wrongdoing.

Commission on Election Chairman Benjajmin Abalos was forced to resign late last year after a losing bidder in the planned national broadband network project named him as the broker of the corrupt deal.

President Arroyo subsequently canceled the contract, but attempts by the administration to prevent a former government consultant on the contract from testifying in the Senate fueled suspicions of a cover-up. Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye yesterday said Arroyo revoked the gag order to demonstrate her resolve to let the truth out in the scandal that has rattled her administration.

Bunye said officials could no longer invoke the order “to excuse nonattendance from legislative inquiries.”

“The president, like anybody else, is after the truth. The president listens to the people,” Bunye said. “She believes that it’s in the best interest of everybody to heal our present conflict.”

Cabinet members have used Arroyo’s order to avoid testifying in a probe by the opposition-dominated Senate.

Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, who heads the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), welcomed Arroyo’s decision.

“We’re happy and grateful that our appeal has been heard by the chief executive,” Lagdameo said, but added it was only “a first step.”

Senators were cautiously happy with the revocation of EO 464, noting that her decision, made after she met a group of bishops, was just a “publicity stunt” to please the church and witnesses could still side-step questions by arguing that their conversations with Arroyo were confidential. “The impression people get is that with 464 repealed, everything is okay,” Senator Manuel Villar told reporters. “They can still resort to all other means to thwart our efforts to find out the truth in these anomalous deals.”

Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan downplayed the revocation of EO 464, saying the Supreme Court has long ruled on the unconstitutionality of the order. “There is nothing to scrap. The question is the status of MC 108 because after the Supreme Court issued its ruling on EO 464, the administration issued MC 108,” he said.

Senate President Manuel Villar said Malacañang “should do more than revoke EO 464 to show its sincerity in promoting transparency and accountability in government ... by also scrapping Memorandum Circular 108 and the illegal use of the executive privilege, the tools used to prevent its officials from testifying before congressional hearings on issues affecting the administration.”

Memorandum Circular 108 was issued after the Supreme Court declared portions of EO 464 unconstitutional.

Administration critics say the circular, which says “all heads of departments of the Executive branch of government shall secure the consent of the president prior to appearing at a question hour before either House of Congress,” is a virtual clone of EO 464.

Senator Manuel Roxas II said the order should have been lifted long ago because it has been used to “cover up” anomalies in government.

Last week, tens of thousands of people gathered in Manila’s financial district of Makati calling for Arroyo to step down, the biggest crowd since about 40,000 protested against her in 2005 amid allegations she cheated in the 2004 election.

Analysts say, however, that Arroyo, who has already survived three impeachment attempts and at least three coup bids, is likely to see out the remainder of her term.

They noted that many Filipinos are sick of political turmoil and the numbers at last week’s rally were a fraction of the 500,000 who took to the streets to oust former President Joseph Estrada in 2001 and the 1 million who faced down tanks to overthrow dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. (Additional input from Agencies & Inquirer News Service)