MANILA, 12 July 2005 — Former Philippine President Corazon Aquino and the head of the Senate yesterday pressed their call for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to step down, saying her continued stay was imperiling the nation.
Senate President Franklin Drilon said he warned Arroyo of alleged irregularities in a major Chinese-funded railway project and other government deals, but that she did nothing to stop corruption.
Arroyo was widely seen to have dodged her immediate political demise over the weekend when the country’s influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) stopped short of calling for her to resign as she faces her biggest crisis over an election scandal.
Arroyo has been grappling with allegations that she rigged last year’s election. She also has been hurt by accusations that her family received huge illegal gambling kickbacks. The allegations, the subject of congressional inquiries, have triggered her worst crisis and calls for her to step down.
Aquino, regarded by many as a moral icon who restored democracy in a 1986 “people power” revolt, yesterday repeated her call for Arroyo to resign quickly.
Aquino said the monthlong political crisis over Arroyo’s alleged cheating was “crippling the government and endangering the nation.”
She said Arroyo should “make the supreme sacrifice” and resign.
Arroyo has apologized for a “lapse in judgment” in talking to an election official before she was declared winner of the May 2004 elections.
The admission has fueled charges that she manipulated the vote count, but she has denied any wrongdoing and repeatedly refused to quit.
Corruption
Drilon said Arroyo’s inaction persuaded him last week to withdraw the support of his influential Liberal Party from the ruling coalition backing Arroyo, and to ask her to resign.
The party’s withdrawal coincided with other major defections, including the resignations of 10 Cabinet members, over allegations Arroyo cheated in last year’s election.
Drilon said he recently warned Arroyo that a multimillion-dollar Chinese government-funded railway project in the northern Philippines was riddled with corruption. He also said he informed her of massive corruption at the Bureau of Customs, but claimed she did nothing to stop the irregularities.
Drilon did not offer any evidence or say whether Arroyo profited from the alleged abnormalities. He said he made the allegations to play down speculation that his party abandoned Arroyo as part of a deal to ensure a seat for himself in a post-Arroyo government.
The government did not immediately comment.
“Over the last few weeks, I have agonized over my support on the presidency in the face of what I know to be colossal corrupt deals in this government,” Drilon said.
“I have tried to do my share in advising the president publicly and privately, but unfortunately nothing was happening and it reached a point when I had to make a decision,” he said.
“I reached the point where my conscience could no longer allow me to serve, to be part of government.”
Drilon decried what he tagged as “black propaganda” launched by Malaca?ang against the Liberal Party and the ten resigned Cabinet men.
In a press conference he called at the Senate, Drilon stressed that Malaca?ang would not succeed because “the truth is on our side.”
He likened the Palace media blitz to an “operation to save the Titanic.”
Palace officials have accused Drilon of conspiring with the resigned Cabinet members to oust Arroyo and install Vice President Noli De Castro as president so that he could become the new vice president.
Digging In
While calls for Arroyo’s resignation mounted, support for her also continued to pour in. Municipal mayors went to Malaca?ang yesterday to show their collective support to the “duly elected president,” according to Binalonan, Pangasinan Mayor Ramon Guico, president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines.
Guico said the group, with 1,501 members, also appealed to the people to heed the decision of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines not to participate in anti-Arroyo rallies asking her to step down.
“I hope we are now all relieved, not only physically but also spiritually, with this pastoral plea from our bishops. This is the only country we have. Let us show our love by obeying their decision,” Guico said.
Renato Reyes, who is secretary general of the left-wing group Bayan, said Arroyo was digging in.
“Arroyo is digging in. We think the decisive factor would be for people to fill the streets in large numbers to force her out,” he said.
Opposition and left-wing groups planned huge rallies Wednesday in Manila’s financial district and the second-largest city of Cebu, and national police Director General Arturo Lomibao placed the 15,000-strong police force in the capital on full alert.
At one Manila university, leftist students walked out of classrooms during lunch break Monday and unfurled huge streamers reading: “Oust Arroyo.”
“We are aware of the efforts by some individuals enticing members of the PNP to participate in or support political moves calling for the resignation of the president,” Lomibao said. “My guidance to all personnel is to ignore these calls and strictly follow the chain of command.”
The head of the elite Presidential Security Group, meanwhile, said he expects “more challenging” days ahead but warned anti-government groups against causing unrest.
“While we respect the rights of our citizens to expression, there should be no mistake that once the use of force and use of violence is used to topple this government, they shall be met with corresponding force,” Brig. Gen. Delfin Bangit said.
Lomibao instructed his men to immediately report any efforts to enlist them into joining anti-government protests.
Opposition groups calling for Arroyo’s ouster over electoral fraud allegations plan to hold what they hope will be huge rallies tomorrow in Manila and the second-largest city of Cebu.
National police spokesman Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil said officers who join protests violate the civil service law and could face dismissal.
He said the police leadership made the warning after receiving reports that a retired officer called on police to go on mass leave. But he said there were no indications that anyone would comply. (With input from Inquirer News Services & agencies)
