Friday, March 14, 2008 Ex-Cabinet officials: Arroyo at center of corruption in NBN deal
AFTER Malacañang ignored their recommendations to curb corruption in government, former senior government officials (FSGOs) on Thursday urged their incumbent colleagues to re-think their service under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo saying she is at the center of corruption and cover-up of the controversial national broadband network (NBN) contract with China's ZTE Corporation.
The accusation against Arroyo however was quickly denied by Malacañang as it branded the FSGOs as "rumor mongers," and their statement is "irresponsible and sweeping."
During Thursday's press conference at the historic Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan, the FSGOs, more popularly known as the La Salle 60, said they have already lost their trust and confidence in the President's capability to govern and to stamp out graft and corruption in the government.
"We express our loss of confidence in her (President Arroyo). As a consequence we question not only her moral authority to govern, but also her ability to govern given the mounting garbage of lies and obfuscation that she is constrained to build to cover up the increasing stench of corruption in her administration," said the group's statement read by former Civil Service Commission chairperson Karina Constantino-David.
The group's membership has risen to more than 90 since they first came out last month. Among the group's members are the "Hyatt 10," the Arroyo Cabinet members who resigned at the height of the "Hello Garci" scandal in 2005 and officials of past Presidents Ferdinand Marcos, Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos, and Joseph Estrada.
They said President Arroyo's continued refusal to serve the people's demand for truth in the recent NBN controversy is emblematic of the government's reaction to past scandals, including the "Hello Garci" tape and fertilizer scam.
"She (President Arroyo) must act to help bring out the full truth about this deal if her hands are truly clean. The Arroyo presidency must shelter the truth or it will be judged as a fortress for lies," the FSGOs said, lamenting the way "the President's spokespersons were summarily dismissing these demands. Later her advisers even criticized and threatened us for making these demands."
"We conclude that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo refuses to serve the people's demand for truth about a matter of great public interest. We see in this refusal, despite ample chances and many sound reasons, a clear basis for our people to find her complicit with and, in fact, at the center of, the corruption and cover up of the NBN-ZTE deal," they said.
They said although the President has scrapped Executive Order (EO) 464, the revocation "does not serve the truth if acting Commission on Higher Education chairman Romulo Neri continues to invoke executive privilege and does not testify on the NBN deal controversy."
They also said that contrary to the spirit of transparency that the administration says it wants in all public transaction, "all records of the NBN-ZTE project have still not been submitted to the Senate."
The revocation of EO 464 and Neri's testimony were two of the five demands the FSGOs issued last March 4 along with the suspension of Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza and Assistant Secretary Lorenzo Formoso for being the lead proponents of the project.
They also called for the suspension of Environment Secretary Joselito Atienza Jr., Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Avelino Razon Jr., Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel Gaite, Manila International Aviation Authority (MIAA) deputy chief Angel Atutubo, PNP-Aviation Security Group Chief Paul Mascarinas and all those involved in the alleged attempt to prevent NBN-ZTE witness Rodolfo Lozada Jr. from testifying in the Senate hearing on the questionable contract.
Likewise, the FSGOs recommended a halt on any further attempts by the government to harass Lozada and those who are testifying in congressional investigations on corruption charges.
The group said the President has failed to implement checks and balances in her administration, resulting in many past scandals "to descent to a limbo of unresolved crimes against the public trust."
"The responsible exercise of presidential power is an important instrument for serving our nation's interests. A president that leads with righteousness and wisdom is a great blessing. A president that serves evil is a terrible curse. To secure a blessing and avoid a curse in the presidency, the founding leaders of our democracy established a system of checks and balances," they said.
Deputy presidential spokeswoman Lorelei Fajardo, meanwhile, said it is easy to make allegations but there should be proof.
"Having been once holders of significantly high positions in government, they should be the first to know that accusations are merely loose talks if not backed by sustained evidence. From respected government officials, now they have simply become 'rumor mongers.' What a said turn of events," Fajardo said.
She said they are barking up the wrong tree because the President has done her part by revoking EO 464 and Memorandum Circular (MC) 108, which restricts the appearance of executive officials in congressional inquiries.
She said the Senate refused the compromise deal offered by Chief Justice Reynato Puno on how to deal with the Senate testimony of Neri and the sign of goodwill from the Palace following the revocation of EO 464 and MC 108.
"The ball is in the hands of the Senate, and the ex-men (FSGOs) should ask the Senate to play ball. We only wonder why they insist on making it appear that the President has not done her share in the search for truth," she said.
The FSGOs' statement fell short of calling for the President's resignation.
According to David, resignation is not an all and only option saying that the best thing is to educate first the people especially on how democratic processes.
"I think we should look beyond calling for resignation," said David stressing that their statement is actually a stronger indictment of the administration that calling for resignation alone.
Aside from David, also present at the press conference where former trade minister Vicente Paterno, former National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) director general Cielito Habito, former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor Jose Cuisia Jr., former anti-poverty chairperson Imelda Nicolas, former presidential peace adviser Teresita Deles, former anti-poverty chairperson Marietta Goco, former trade secretary Narzalina Lim, former press secretary Rod Reyes, former presidential political adviser Lito Banayo, former education undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz, former budget secretary Cesar Purisima, former National Statistics Office (NSO) administrator Tomas Africa, former national treasurer Leonor Briones, former tourism undersecretary Sostenes Campillo, former Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC) president Norberto Nazareno, former agriculture secretary Philip Ella Juico, former MIAA general manager Guillermo Cunanan, former Philippine Commission on Good Government (PCGG) commissioner Quintin Doromal, former finance secretary Ernest Leung and former agrarian reform undersecretaries Conrado Navarro and Hector Soliman. (AH/JMR/Sunnex)
