Tuesday, February 26, 2008 Erap, JDV call on Arroyo to resign
FORMER President Joseph Estrada and ousted House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. on Monday asked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to step down amid several scandals hounding her administration.
Estrada said rallies and protests against Arroyo should continue until the President realizes the need for her resignation.
He cited a series of approval rating polls which according to him show that more people no longer trust the Arroyo administration.
Despite being pardoned by the President for the plunder charge, Estrada still believed that Arroyo is an "illegitimate president" as she grabbed the presidency from him through a people power revolt in 2001 and "cheated in the 2004 presidential election to retain in office."
The convicted leader also called on the military and the police to heed the call of the people who are seeking the resignation of President Arroyo.
De Venecia, for his part, said the President should step down or face the divisive and painful impeachment.
"I already called for her (Arroyo) resignation. It's useless for her to lead the moral revolution," he said.
According to him, President Arroyo has wasted the opportunity to redeem her administration by starting to cleanse it through a top-to-bottom revamp and holding accountable those responsible for the "bribery and corruption" in her government amidst the controversy surrounding the botched US$329 million National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with China's ZTE Corp.
"It's useless now," he said, noting that the President will have to face another impeachment attempt once the one-year ban on filing lapses in September if she clings to her position.
He said the President should not have waited for public outrage and the Supreme Court's (SC) intervention before canceling the project last September, four months after the deal was signed.
"Besides, ZTE is not wholly owned by the Chinese government. It is a mixed state and private stakeholders' enterprise," he said.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) warned Estrada that his pardon might be revoked for calling the Arroyo presidency "illegitimate"
DOJ Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor said the former leader's statement that President Arroyo is an illegitimate president is "inconsistent" because that would mean that his pardon, which was granted by Arroyo, would also be invalid.
"Definitely the mere fact that the President is illegitimate, he (Estrada) is putting in question his own pardon," he said, citing the legal dictum that "the spring cannot rise higher than the source."
"We cannot expect that if a situation is convenient to Estrada he will question anything on the status of presidency," he said.
Blancaflor said Estrada's statement was obviously given without legal advice.
According to him, they are also studying if Estrada's call for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to rise against government and be the people's protector is seditious.
National Police Chief Avelino Razon Jr. criticized Estrada for calling on the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the AFP to heed the call of the people who are asking for President Arroyo's resignation.
During Monday's joint press conference with AFP Chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr. inside Camp Aguinaldo, Razon asked the ousted President if a few thousands of rallyists represents the entire population of the country, which is about 90 million.
"Again, who are the people referred to by President Estrada? The 3,000 or 5,000? That is not the entire Filipino people of 90 million Filipinos," said Razon, who along with Esperon, has renewed allegiance to the chain of command headed by Arroyo.
"Let us first put it in the proper context. When you say in the streets, how many people are actually in the streets? They are not the representative of the entire Filipino people," said the PNP chief.
"The PNP as well as the AFP is one with the Filipino people in supporting this duly constituted government so the President could go about her regular schedules, especially in the provinces. In the provinces, the people's activities are normal, no rallies and demonstrations like this. It is only here in Metro Manila where there are demonstrations and rallies," he added.
Razon said there are no reported restiveness in the ranks of the PNP in the face of the controversies.
Meanwhile, PNP Directorate for Intelligence Dante Ferrer said there was no truth to speculations that the members of the elite Special Action Force (SAF) have switched side.
"This information about several weeks ago have been put into process of verification and we are glad to say that there is no such truth to these information in so far as our verification is concerned," Ferrer said.
"The PNP is designed as a law enforcement agency. We only have one unit, which is well-equipped, armed and can be called for any confrontation, but the rest of the PNP are deployed to various areas of the country. I'm referring to this unit as the Special Action Force," he said.
"We (police intelligence community) have conferred this with the leadership of SAF and we are all together. It (PNP ranks) is very solid, so there is no truth to the information about division in the Philippine National Police," added Ferrer. (WV/JMR/VR/Sunnex)
