OUSTED Speaker Jose de Venecia sought the
help of former President Fidel V. Ramos on Tuesday night to
prevent the merger of the Lakas-CMD and the Kabalikat ng
Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) and "get rid of the evil forces that
are now bedeviling" the ruling party.
In a letter dated Feb. 25, De Venecia urged
Ramos to drive away the "evil forces" from Lakas and join
another party "where they can be comfortable with their greed
and pathetic practices."
Senate star witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada
earlier said former socio-economic planning Secretary Romulo
Neri had referred to President Arroyo as "evil" in one of their
meetings on the $329 million national broadband network (NBN)
deal with China's ZTE Corp.
In his letter, De Venecia asked Ramos to stop
the "decline and demise" of the ruling party, which he said is
now in "the grip of Malacañang and heavily infiltrated by the
forces of Kampi and the President's family and cronies."
"She appeared to agree to the merger only
when she needed our Party's support, as during the series of
crises that confronted her presidency," he said. "Now that she
is facing another crisis, there is again this talk of merger."
De Venecia, who is expected to be ousted as
Lakas president during the ruling party's national directorate
meeting on March 6 for speaking out against party chair
President Arroyo, said the latter has supported Kampi's "raiding
of our party leaders or the fielding of candidates opposing our
party's official candidates in the 2007 elections in Kampi's
inordinate desire to become the dominant administration party."
He said presidential husband Jose Miguel
Arroyo is in control of Kampi, along with sons Pampanga Rep.
Juan Miguel Arroyo, Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado "Dato" Arroyo,
and brother Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio Arroyo.
De Venecia said the President has turned a
deaf ear on his call for a moral revolution. "By her actions and
decisions, she has ignored our calls and merely paid lip service
to them. She did nothing to stop the plunder of our nation," he
said.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita,
meanwhile, branded De Venecia's threat to ask the international
community to pressure President Arroyo to step down as "just a
float."
Ermita said Philippine officials and
statesmen do not need to solicit the support of other
governments to solve "local problems" when they go abroad. "It's
very unlikely. Mukhang palutang lang nila," Ermita said in his
weekly press conference.
He said De Venecia left for New York Tuesday
for a speaking engagement before the UN but he does not believe
that the former speaker would be able to solicit support for
resignation calls there. "I don't know how a person of his
stature can do what people said he might do," he said.
During their happy days together, De Venecia
was all praises for Arroyo, even saying that she could be the
best President the country ever had. The praises suddenly turned
to tirades when the President's allies voted to oust him last
Feb. 5 amid the fallout over his son Jose III's allegations of
bribery and irregularities in the NBN-ZTE deal.
De Venecia and his wife Gina have joined
calls for Arroyo's resignation, saying she has lost the moral
authority to lead the nation towards moral recovery.
Rep. Matias Defensor, chair of the committee on justice,
advised De Venecia to just leave Lakas-CMD before he is ousted
in their national directorate meeting on March 3. "Umalis na
lang siya. He will be a square peg in a round hole. It's
awkward. You can't lead the country if you're a Malaysian," said
Defensor. - Wendell Vigilia and Regina Bengco
