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Monday, July 11, 2005
Cory Aquino insists Arroyo should quit
MANILA (Updated, 2:33 p.m.) -- Former President Corazon Aquino on Monday repeated her call for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign quickly, saying all the alternatives would hurt the country.
Aquino is still seen as one of the Philippines' moral icons, and her statement was certain to add weight to the efforts to force out Arroyo, a former close ally, with five years left on her term.
Aquino, claiming she could not stay quiet, said a month long political crisis over allegations that Arroyo rigged last year's election was "crippling the government and endangering the nation."
The former president reiterated that at this juncture only two constitutional paths remain open for the peaceful and democratic resolution of the present crisis.
In a speech after a mass for renewal held at the De la Salle University (DLSU) Chapel sponsored by the university's administration, faculty and students, Aquino asked Arroyo anew " to spare our country and herself from this second option and make the supreme sacrifice of resigning."
The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) earlier decided not to join the clamor for Arroyo to quit due to alleged electoral fraud and instead said she should be held accountable for her act of talking to an elective official at the height of canvassing of presidential votes last year.
Aquino repeated that two options are open for Arroyo and these are: voluntary resignation and impeachment.
She said an impeachment would be a long and tedious process so she prefers that Arroyo step down as a fast solution to the political turmoil.
Meanwhile, she urged the people to speak on the issue against Arroyo and not just let her and the 10 former members of the Cabinet to talk in their behalf.
Aquino lauded the 10 former Cabinet officials for resigning from their posts and calling for Arroyo's resignation and said she believes that they did so after a lot of discernment and prayers.
" They could just have keep quiet and maybe none of us could have said anything about it. But they believe their duty was to us the Filipino people and so they took the risk and even now they're getting so much flak for what they have done. But they are also receiving our country's gratitude. We need more Filipinos likes them," Aquino said referring to the 10 former Cabinet officials.
Rigoberto Tiglao, one of Arroyo's chief aides, accused Aquino of "intellectual dishonesty" and said Arroyo "never will resign."
"We're talking here not only of this presidency, but the future of this country," Tiglao said.
"Demand for the president to resign is really an attempt to move other political forces to force the president to resign."
The De La Salle brothers also made clarifications on their stand in asking the President Arroyo to resign.
Bro. Armin Luistro, the university president said what they did was a "calculated risk and it was a painful choice."
"We received many commendations but we also received many criticisms within our academic institutions and academic community and from the general public," he added.
He said: "Ours is a plea and a prayer that she voluntary relinquish power so that a constitutional process of succession may proceed. It is a nonviolence appeal to her conscience for the good of the nation. It pains us and it pains me even today to have to tell her this simple truth but we do so in all charity with deep humility."(Sunnex)
(Reposted with updates) |
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