MANILA, Philippines -- Military intervention to resolve the political crisis caused by the national broadband deal controversy will only start a "vicious cycle" and weaken the country's democratic systems, Armed Forces Chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and his successor said Friday.

Esperon and Lieutenant General Alexander Yano, Army Chief, issued their statements as they rejected calls for soldiers to intervene the way they did in 1986 and 2001, which caused the downfall of two presidents.

"Do not ask us to intervene. The more the military intervenes, the more that these democratic institutions become weak. We do not want that. That is not the spirit of EDSA 1," Esperon told reporters at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes Cemetery) in Fort Bonifacio.

"There should be no shortcuts, no extra-constitutional means. It is improper for some groups to call for the military to intervene. There will be a vicious cycle. We can't interfere every time there is a political problem," Yano said.

"It is not for a noisy minority to dictate on the people what to do," he added.

Yano will replace Esperon whose three-month term extension expires on May 9.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo extended Esperon's tour of duty to sustain the "momentum" of security forces against communist rebels.

"This is our challenge to civil society. Make people power work, make people power strengthen the democratic institutions. Do not ask us to intervene but ask us to protect the democratic processes," Esperon said.

Calls for Arroyo to resign were revived in recent weeks after a new witness bolstered allegations that First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos benefited from the alleged overprice of the $329-million contract between the government and China's ZTE Corp. for the national broadband network (NBN) project.