SIXTY-ONE former Cabinet secretaries and
other high-ranking officials from the Marcos to the Arroyo
administrations yesterday asked President Arroyo to act on her
recent statement that she is against corruption as they gave
her a five-item to-do list that they said Arroyo should
accomplish within a week.
The former officials, in a press conference
at the Club Filipino in Greenhills, said Arroyo should do the
following:
•Order Romulo Neri to resume his testimony
before the Senate, without any restriction or limitation. Neri,
acting chairman of the Commission on Higher Education, was the
chief of the National Economic Development Authority when the
alleged overpriced national broadband network project was being
processed. He has told a Senate investigation that he has been
offered P200 million offer by then Elections chairman Benjamin
Abalos, who is said to be brokering for the Chinese firm ZTE
Corp. which eventually got the contract. He has declined to
appear again before the Senate, invoking "executive privilege."
•Order the release and delivery to the Senate
of all public records pertaining to the NBN-ZTE deal, starting
with the minutes of the NEDA board meetings on the project.
•Suspend DOTC Secretary Leandro Mendoza and
assistant secretary Lorenzo Formoso, as the DOTC was the lead
agency for the project.
•Suspend Environment Secretary Lito Atienza,
PNP chief Avelino Razon, Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel Gaite,
NAIA chief Angel Atutubo, Senior Supt. Paul Mascariñas, and all
the others involved in the attempt to prevent Senate witness
Rodolfo Noel Lozada from testifying.
•Order a halt to any further attempts by
agencies such as the justice and environment departments, the
NBI and Bureau of Internal Revenue to harass Lozada and other
witnesses.
In a statement, the former officials said:
"The President said recently: ‘Ang taumbayan galit sa katiwalian.
Ganoon din ako, galit din ako sa katiwalian.’ We affirm the
first sentence. We ask that the second sentence be demonstrated
in action."
The group includes the "Hyatt 10," a group of
former Cabinet officials of the Arroyo administration who
resigned in 2005 amid allegations the Arroyo camp cheated in the
2004 presidential elections.
"Having belatedly cancelled the ZTE contract
to show her supposed anger with reported corruption in this
deal, the President must now follow through with actions to
determine the actual anomalies and establish responsibility for
these. Otherwise, canceling the contract could be interpreted as
an effort to cover up corruption rather than to pin down and
root it out," the group said.
The group said Arroyo "must demonstrate her
commitment to the truth through these actions within one week as
more and more of our people make their judgment."
"She must do these or be condemned as
complicit with, and in fact, as being at the center of, the lies
surrounding the NBN-ZTE deal," it added.
The demand letter was drafted on Saturday, a
day after a major protest rally that gathered the biggest group
so far – from 70,000 to 80,000 according to organizers and
15,000 to 20,000 according to the police.
The group has not joined the ouster calls but
former Education secretary Florencio Abad earlier said the call
for resignation "is most likely our next step if there will be
no meaningful and satisfactory response from her."
"Once there is a (united) call for
resignation, things will move faster," he said.
The group said it would make public their
stand on the ouster calls after the one-week deadline.
Abad said the people are more united now in
seeking the truth because of the call of the Catholic Bishops
Conference of the Philippines for "communal action."
Abad said Arroyo should not belittle their
call, saying the group represents a wide constituency and it is
the first time that such a big group of former senior government
officials have gathered and made known their stand.
MORE COMING OUT
David said it was the first "critical mass"
of non-political personalities who are willing to go out of
their comfort zones" and more are planning to come out.
Hyatt 10 member Corazon "Dinky" Soliman,
former Social Welfare secretary, said former colleagues "are
just gathering courage and strength to say enough is enough."
"These are people who are questioning `how
much longer and how much can we take?’" Soliman said.
Teresita Deles, former Arroyo adviser on the peace process,
said: "People want to make sure that in case President Arroyo
steps down, it’s not just the change of people. There should be
action that needs to be pursued after this administration."
