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Thursday, June 30, 2005
Mike Arroyo to go on exile
MANILA -- In a bid to blunt calls for her to resign over scandals rocking her administration, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Wednesday that her husband, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, has volunteered to go on self-exile abroad.
Addressing the business community Wednesday, the President said this was part of the sacrifices by members of the First Family so that she could better serve as leader of the nation.
Pro-administration senators promptly welcomed the move but the opposition dismissed it as just a "drama to elicit public sympathy".
President Arroyo lamented that the First Gentleman, a magnet for political attacks, is widely misunderstood, and even his contributions to health care and sports development have been the object of pillory, especially by her political enemies.
"And so he will leave to remove these distractions and doubts from our people's minds. As with Caesar's wife, my husband has volunteered to remove himself from any situation which will cast doubt on my presidency," she told a business-government roundtable meeting at the Manila Polo Club in Forbes Park, Makati City.
Under pressure
The First Gentleman's decision to go abroad was announced as the opposition and militant cause-oriented groups intensified their demand for the President to resign, even after she publicly apologized for speaking several times to former Commission on Elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano before the canvassing was done in the 2004 presidential elections.
Presidential Spokesperson Ignacio Bunye said the First Gentleman would leave the country on July 5 but did not say where he would go or how long he would be gone. It's likely, however, that he will go to the United States, where the First Couple owns some properties in California.
Presidential son Pampanga Representative Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo and his uncle, Negros Occidental Representative Ignacio Arroyo, were rumored to have been advised by the President to renounce their congressional seats after some witnesses in a Senate inquiry testified they were among the recipients of huge gambling payoffs.
Bunye declined to comment on the rumor, saying it is "a family matter."
But he pointed out that the young Arroyo has already gone on indefinite leave on his own initiative while he is under investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman for his alleged links to the illegal numbers game, jueteng.
Family sacrifices
President Arroyo said members of her family have supported her throughout her career in government, sacrificing their own advancement just to ensure that she could carry out her duties without any question on her integrity.
She recalled that when she was the executive director of the Garments and Textiles Export Board, her husband stopped his law practice to avoid any temptation to take in clients who might want to buy influence to get garment quotas.
And when she became President, Arroyo said her daughter, Lourdes "Luli" Evangeline, topped the foreign service exam, but readily accepted her decision not to appoint her to the service.
"My family knows they must be self-effacing because the presidency is a position of great responsibility necessitating personal sacrifice, and is not a fount of privilege or special favors," she said.
The President said this was why her first administrative order upon assuming the presidency was to prohibit government agencies from dealing with her family on matters of appointments and to encourage transparency and accountability in government.
She said her children and granddaughters would miss their doting father and grandfather, but it is their small contribution to rebuilding society.
"As a wife, I'm grateful to my husband for his sacrifice. My family will miss him terribly and I ask you to help pray that we remain strong as a family," she said.
3 demands
In a statement issued by his office, the First Gentleman said he would not hesitate to make any extreme sacrifice.
"I love my wife very much. It has been very difficult for me to see her suffer through the negative press I have received. If there is anything I can do, any sacrifice I can make, to give her peace of mind, I would never hesitate to do it. That is why I have offered to leave. Being away from my wife and my family is a very painful decision."
The First Gentleman's exile is reportedly among the three demands of many Cabinet members who have threatened to resign over the wiretapping controversy.
The two others are for the President to speak up on the tapes and for Representatives Mikey Arroyo and Ignacio Arroyo Jr. to resign from the House.
Albay Representative Joey Salceda said First Gentleman Arroyo's self-exile is one of 10 major announcements that President Arroyo will make every two days. "These are not flimsy and frivolous announcements but substantial announcements," Salceda, a close adviser of President Arroyo, said.
Best defense
Reacting to the President's announcement, Senate President Franklin Drilon said the best defense President Arroyo has against her critics is good governance and "doing the right things for the good of the country."
"If she believes that allowing her husband to leave the country at this critical stage will help her provide good governance, then I applaud her for making such an enormous sacrifice in her family. Her decision only shows the extent of her determination to fulfill her mandate as President of the country."
On the other hand, Drilon reiterated his call for the President to replace key officials who are unable to contribute to her efforts to implement tangible reforms that the government needs badly to regain the confidence of the people.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said it is not enough that the First Gentleman leave the country to save the government.
"It's just a cosmetic move to elicit sympathetic emotional response in people's hearts. It's not enough to atone for her offenses," Pimentel said.
Opposition Senator Panfilo Lacson said he doubts if the irregularities in the administration would go away if the First Gentleman left the country.
"Mike Arroyo can be as far as Timbuktu but what assurance do we have that smuggling will stop and corruption will be abated when he is not in the country?" he said. (Manila Standard Today/Sunnex)
Click here for a chronology of the crisis.
Click here for the transcript of Arroyo's confession.
(June 30, 2005 issue)
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Poe widow to Arroyo: Resign!