SEN. Mar Roxas yesterday said President Arroyo’s admission Saturday that the ZTE deal was flawed is her second public "mea culpa" after the Hello Garci audiotape conversations in 2004.

"How can we believe in the sincerity of the President to set things right in the face of EO (Executive Order) 464, the Lozada abduction and harassment clearly intended to impede truth and justice?" he said in a statement.

"How can we believe in the sincerity and motives of the President if she is using our diplomatic relations with China as an excuse for not preventing a crime against the Filipino people?"

"If the President is indeed sincere in her latest admission of fault, then she should immediately lift EO 464; order the NEDA Director-General to submit to the Senate all NEDA-ICC documents in relation to the NBN; and other actions that respect the people’s right to free expression and to information.

"Without these actions, the status quo remains, and the people’s crusade for truth will snowball."

Rep. Teddy Casiño (Bayan Muna) said the President’s "lame, outright and barefaced lie" gave the people another reason to demand for her resignation.

"A president who flagrantly insults the nation’s intelligence with such a blatant lie has no right to be in power. President Arroyo should resign immediately or face ouster from an outraged public," he said.

Casiño said the President’s admission that she knew of the anomalies surrounding the NBN-ZTE deal "is worse than her ‘I am sorry’ speech of 2005."

"This time, she wants to make it appear that she was ignorant of the whole thing and in fact should even be credited for canceling the contract when in truth, she and her husband would have been recipients of the $130 million kickback arranged by then Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos," he said.

Casiño said that by saying that she knew of the anomalies and canceled the contract, Arroyo "is virtually calling her subordinates liars."

"Secretaries Ermita, Mendoza, Favila, Gonzales and others who insist that the project was aboveboard and in fact would save billions for the government should hang their heads in shame for being made liars by their boss. They should immediately resign out of delicadeza," he said.

Casiño however said that before heads roll, it is the President who should step down first.

"She has desecrated the Presidency to its lowest point. She cannot be allowed to do more damage than she has already done."

Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, United Opposition (UNO) president, said Arroyo’s belated admission only shows her "clumsy and belated attempt" to distance herself and her family from the latest scandal to hit the administration.

"As a public official and as the supposed Chief Executive, she is sworn to uphold the law. But by her own admission, she knew about it but did not lift a finger to stop it because she did not want to offend a foreign country," Binay said.

"Mrs. Arroyo cannot escape culpability. The facts clearly point to the direction of her and her husband as having knowledge of the corruption behind the ZTE-NBN broadband deal," he added.

"Her statement actually raised more questions including the extent of her knowledge of her husband’s involvement in the botch deal. It was a clumsy, belated attempt to diffuse public anger and put some distance between her and the scandal," Binay said.

Binay said Arroyo’s statement contradicted the testimony of several government officials from the Department of Transportation and Communication and even from those involved in the contract that the project was above-board.

He said her admission only proves that the administration had been lying to the public the whole time.

He said since the Senate began its inquiry last year, Malacañang and other government officials were defending the deal from charges it was tainted with corruption.

"With Mrs. Arroyo’s admission, the house of lies constructed by her apologists and political operatives has crumbled. It exposes the web of lies and deceit being spun by Malacañang, members of the Cabinet, former Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos and other government functionaries," Binay said. – Wendell Vigilia and Ashzel Hachero