PHILIPPINE NEWS SERVICE — Former President Corazon Aquino should heed the call of the majority of the Filipino people who want stability and thus drop her call for the resignation or ouster of President Arroyo, according to Malacañang.
Deputy presidential spokesman Lorelie Fajardo said: “The opposition should heed the people’s desire for political stability. Election is just around the corner. Let’s buckle down to development and not discord.”
Malacañang was reacting to Mrs. Aquino’s speech at the University of Santo Tomas, renewing her call for the ouster of President Arroyo and encouraging protests even if it meant a “long fight.”
Mrs. Aquino joined the opposition leaders in seeking the ouster of the Arroyo administration after her husband and a few members of her Cabinet were linked to a bribery attempt over the national broadband network project.
But Malacañang insisted that majority of the people and the public officials did not share the view of the opposition.
Fajardo cited for instance the League of Cities of the Philippines, which issued a statement signed by 77 out of 120 city mayors all over the country, expressing their support for Mrs. Arroyo’s administration and junking resignation calls against her.
“The political ‘noise’ which is mainly in Metro Manila does not represent the true sentiment of the people of the Philippines,” the LCP statement said. “While some people are out in the streets to rouse mass fervor, a greater number are bound to respect the proper constitutional means of ferreting out the truth. And the League of Cities of the Philippines belong to the greater number—with sobriety and clarity.”
The LCP, led by its chairman Jerry Treñas, said that while there were indirect allegations imputed against President Arroyo, these have not been examined nor proven with strict compliance with the proceedings required by law.
“These allegations remain unsubstantiated and lack veracity. A factual premise for the calls for the President’s resignation has not been established,” the LCP statement said.
Last week, some 52 out of the 81 provincial governors all over the country joined Mrs. Arroyo in a “solidarity walk” to show their continued support for her administration.
Fajardo reiterated that the Palace is confident that Mrs. Arroyo will finish her term in 2010.
“If there is one thing I am sure of, it is that the President will finish her term to ensure completion of her economic program,” Fajardo said.
Mrs. Arroyo’s program of government not only aims to bring food to every table of the Filipino but also seeks to ensure that such program will be sustained by the continued fight against tax evaders, graft and corruption and other social malady.
In her speech at UST, Mrs. Aquino said that many of our countrymen have not been “fully awakened” and that they “seem to refuse to be roused from their slumber.”
Yet, Mrs. Aquino said that if the Filipino people were able to bring down dictator Ferdinand Marcos, it could prove easier now because there is no martial law.
In the same event, UST acting rector Rolando de la Rosa OP cautioned against another people power to change the leadership, saying similar actions in the past have failed to reform the Philippine politics and society.
De la Rosa noted that after two people power uprisings, the rich became richer and politicians only transformed themselves into brokers for equally rich and influential people and families.
Filipinos should use people power during elections so that the country would have true leaders, he told the audience that included Mrs. Aquino.