BY DENNIS GADIL

MALACAÑANG ally Sen. Richard Gordon yesterday urged President Arroyo to come out openly is she wants to stay as president or head of government beyond 2010.

"Prangkahan na, para makuha agad ang sagot ng tao. Ang problema kasi, sinisekreto pa," he added.

Gordon said the President’s ultimate disclosure will put to rest suspicions she would use the peace initiative with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to amend the Charter and extend her term stay in office.

He said he gave the same advice to former President Fidel Ramos when his allies were plotting in 1997 to extend his term through a "people’s initiative" which was rejected in the Supreme Court.

"I told him (Ramos), tell the nation you want your term extended. I’ll support you," Gordon said.

Gordon, however, did not say if he will give unqualified support to President Arroyo on term extension.

Gordon said the secrecy is only fanning more speculations that she is indeed moving to have her term extended through the peace accord with the MILF. The document on the ancestral domain needs constitutional remedy to be legal, which would entail amending the Charter.

Gordon said any change to the Charter should be effected only after 2010.

Senate President Manuel Villar last week said a big vested interest group is also behind President Arroyo’s extension bid. But he refused to go into details.