No one person can take credit for Arroyo presidency--Palace
Conditions for people power not present--Ermita
By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 12:09:00 02/20/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE 2) As it played down a Roman Catholic bishop's call for a new "people power" against corruption, Malacañang said no person could take credit for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's rise to power through a popular uprising in 2001.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo was speaking for himself, and not for the 81 bishops, 14 archbishops, and two cardinals in the country.
Lagdameo is also president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP).
Asked about Lagdameo's statement expressing disappointment in Arroyo replacing former president Joseph Estrada, who was ousted for corruption, Ermita said: "Everyone is entitled to say they're disappointed."
"They cannot lay claim na sila lang ang nagluklok sa Presidente sa kanyang kinaluluklukan noong [that they were the only ones who installed the President in the position where she is now in] EDSA 2," he told a news conference at the Palace.
To stress his point that Lagdameo's stand did not reflect that of the Catholic church, Ermita read from a letter, written by the dean of the San Beda Graduate School of Law, Father Ranhilio Callangan Aquino.
In the letter, Aquino said he was not joining calls for Arroyo’s ouster since Lozada has not said anything to "establish [her] culpability."
At the same time, Aquino called on the Department of Justice to investigate the national broadband controversy with "enthusiasm, transparency, efficiency, and expeditiousness."
At the same time, Ermita said the elements for another people power uprising were not present.
"Naniniwala kami na [We believe that] the conditions, as well as the reasons [for people power] are not present," he said.
In another Palace reaction early Wednesday, Lorelei Fajardo, deputy presidential spokesperson, said the search for truth must involve "justice and fair play" and must not be based on "gossip, lies, and innuendos.”
"The call of Bishop Lagdameo is a call for a prayerful movement so that everyone concerned will seek and find discernment of truth, not just peddled gossip, lies, and innuendos. That is the call of the time," said Fajardo.
"The challenge is for all to not just seek the truth, but also exercise fairness, justice, and fair play. While we subscribe to the laws of God, we also have to contend with the laws of man," Fajardo said in a text message.
Lagdameo had clarified that he was speaking as Jaro bishop and not as CBCP president as he expressed disappointment at the outcome of the 2001 "people power uprising" that ousted then president Joseph Estrada and installed then vice president Arroyo.
He likened the change in leadership to jumping from a "frying pan to a worse frying pan."
Calls for Arroyo to resign were revived last week after a former government consultant, Rodolfo Lozada Jr., testified before a Senate investigation on the NBN scam and exposed the alleged overprice of the $329-million contract between the government and China's ZTE Corp.
Lozada alleged that former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos was set to receive a $130-million kickback from the ZTE agreement while $70 million was supposed to go to the President's husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo.
Both have denied the claims.
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