MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE) Instead of pressing for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?s resignation, a Palace official has urged former president Corazon Aquino to be an ?agent of development and not discord.

?Let?s buckle down to work and urge the former president to be with us in our common desire to bring a better life for our people to be an agent of development and not discord,? deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said in a statement on Monday.

Fajardo was reacting to Aquino, who expressed optimism that Arroyo would eventually be forced to step down from her post.

"The protest moves may continue, but we seriously doubt whether this can gather such momentum expected by those who want the ouster of the President," Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.

Bunye also noted the "declining" trend in the size of protest actions, compared with the hundreds of thousands that mounted the 1986 and 2001 People Power uprisings.

Last Friday, 15,000 people according to police estimates, 80,000 according to organizers, joined an inter-faith rally in the Makati financial district, the largest gathering of anti-Arroyo protesters since a new witness in the national broadband scandal surfaced in early February.

But Fajardo said, ?If there is one thing I am sure of is that the President will be forced to finish her term to ensure completion of her economic program.?

?This program does not only aim to bring food to every table of the Filipino but also to ensure that such program will be sustained by the continued fight against tax evaders, graft and corruption, and other social malady that has caused so much suffering to our people,? she said.

Fajardo insisted that the President would not step down and would finish her term in 2010.

She then urged the opposition to heed the people's desire for socio-political stability, saying that ?Election is just around the corner.?