MANILA—Two former presidents, once bitter foes, joined thousands of protesters at a rally in Makati yesterday, where they pressed for President Arroyo’s resignation.
It was the largest crowd yet since Arroyo’s latest crisis erupted weeks ago when the Senate heard testimony, broadcast on live television, that linked her husband to multimillion-dollar kickbacks in the national broadband network (NBN) deal.
The crowd included former president Corazon Aquino, who rose to Malaca-ńang when the first people power revolt ousted Ferdi-nand Marcos in 1986, and former president Joseph Estrada, who was forced out over massive corruption by the second people power uprising in 2001.
“I thought my work was done because I am already old,” said Aquino, 75. “But this is what the times ask for, for us to unite so that the deceit will end and we will find out the truth. Thankfully there are still many of us.”
Aquino used to be one of Arroyo’s biggest supporters before breaking away in 2005 amid allegations that the President had rigged the 2004 election.
Soldiers and police went on high alert, setting up checkpoints at major highways as demonstrators braved a drizzle and gathered in the Makati financial district. Police estimated turnout at 15,000, while organizers estimated the crowd at about 80,000.
People began dispersing at 8 p.m., when the rally permit expired.
Arroyo, who has ordered an investigation by the Justice Department and the government ombudsman, spent part of the day inaugurating the country’s first public aquarium.
She also spent about three hours in Camp Crame monitoring the rally and getting briefings from police and military officials, said PNP Chief Avelino Razon Jr.
“It was peaceful and orderly. We thank the organizers. Hopefully, in an hour the program would be concluded and our lives will be back to normal,” Razon said.
He said the President was “not worried, but she just wanted to be briefed, just like in the Edsa People Power 1 anniversary. When she was satisfied with the briefing, she left.”
The rally was organized by a loose coalition of opposition groups, business people, left-wing activists, Roman Catholic church-backed organizations and a large evangelical group, the Jesus is Lord Movement.
“No single group or person claims credit for leading this initiative,” said Renato Reyes, secretary-general of the left-wing alliance Bayan.
In Iligan city, about 1,000 Muslim and Christian protesters—including lawyers, teachers, priests, nuns and Muslim guerrillas in civilian clothes—gathered in a public plaza to call for Arroyo’s ouster.
Smaller anti-Arroyo rallies were held elsewhere in the country.
Arroyo’s latest trouble stems from allegations of corruption in a US$330 million broadband deal with China’s ZTE Corp., which she was forced to cancel.
“I am growing optimistic because I can see that more and more Filipinos are taking part in the effort to find the truth,” former president Aquino said. “What came out in the Senate hearings was really shocking.”
Senate witness Rodolfo Lozada Jr. asked the rally participants to join him in his fight to search for the truth.
“The truth will still protect me,” he told the cheering crowd.
During his speech, Lozada also asked the public to forgive him for whatever wrongdoings he did during his term as president of the Philippine Forest Corp.
Malacanang’s spokespersons expressed relief that the interfaith rally was peaceful but took potshots at the personalities involved, particularly Lozada.
“Simply put, Lozada is dangerously making a fool of a lot of our intelligent people by continuing to play out the script designed by unseen hands,” said deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo.
Armed Forces Chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said the military will adhere to the chain of command even if a million demonstrators gather and demand the resignation of the President, amid charges of corruption in her administration.
“I chastise those people who would want the military to intervene because after 1986, what we should have done was to strengthen democratic institutions. If you say that we have to continuously intervene, then we must be failing in our maturing process as a nation,” he said. (AP/Sunnex)
