Friday, November 24, 2006 Senator to Arroyo: Quit and 'be spared of embarrassment in 2007 polls'
OPPOSITION Senator Panfilo Lacson on Thursday gave a piece of unsolicited advice to President Gloria Maqcapagal-Arroyo.
He said she should step down if she wants to make administration senatorial bets win in the May 2007 elections or risk going down as the most hated president in Philippine history.
Lacson said if the President steps down, history will be kinder to her as the "one-two punch" of low trust ratings and low approval ratings for administration bets is now showing in recent surveys.
He also said Arroyo, instead of engaging in blaming the media for her low trust ratings, should try self-reflection instead. He said she has herself to blame because she has refused to face issues against her and even tried to suppress the truth.
"Such moves to suppress the truth have alienated her and her 'fair-haired boys' from the people," he added.
"In the minds of the people, no amount of excuses can diffuse the wrongdoings they have been linked to," he said.
He said Arroyo's problems stemmed from alleged cheating in the 2004 presidential elections when she tried to keep the truth involving the "Hello Garci" scandal from coming out.
Worse, Malacañang tried to suppress the truth by coming out with measures like calibrated preemptive response (CPR) and Executive Order (EO) 464 by barring officials from testifying in congressional investigations without presidential clearance.
"There are so many anomalies. But they will then blame the media. They should try to look at themselves," he said.
Lacson said if Arroyo will not change her attitude, she will go down in history as the most disliked president ever. "That will be her destiny unless she faces the truth about issues of cheating in the election. She should face them squarely instead of resorting to squid tactics and fooling the people," he said.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. called the unity senatorial ticket proposed by Presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor as "ridiculous"
"That idea, to say the least, is ridiculous. It is not possible for us to fall for it for the simple reason that we will just provide the administration the horse to ride on for purposes of the coming elections," Pimentel said.
He added that the administration has no hope of winning in the senatorial elections and this was affirmed by recent surveys which showed opposition bets dominating the slots.
"If you will look at the recent surveys, for example, I understand that the highest ranking candidate, supposedly from the administration, is number 20 in the list. Yung first 19, puro opposition personalities lahat (The first 19 are all opposition personalities). Now I am only talking of the senatorial elections. I am sure na ang sentimento ng tao (the sentiment of the people) against the administration will spill over to the local, especially in the congressional positions," Pimentel said. (CPB/Sunnex)
