MANILA, Philippines -- For the second time since the ?Hello Garci? scandal in 2005, former President Corazon Aquino Tuesday called on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign, saying it was the least disruptive way out of the ?severe moral crisis? confronting the country.

Speaking before a joint meeting of the Management Association of the Philippines, Makati Business Club and PinoyME Foundation, Aquino said Ms Arroyo was clearly no longer in a position to provide strong moral leadership.

?She must give way to a credible government that could lead by example,? said the icon of the first People Power Revolution that toppled the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

Wearing her trademark yellow dress, Aquino said the people?s guiding light should not be ?an obsession? to evict the President from Malacañang but the Constitution.

?Given our concern to protect the pillars of our democracy, the extraconstitutional removal of the President is not an ideal we would want to aspire for,? she said.

But, with her characteristic calm voice, Aquino said: ?In an environment where abuse of power, in the face of democratic institutions, closes all doors to legitimate redress, sadly, we are often pushed to the brink.?

Least disruptive way

?That is why the most noble -- and least disruptive -- way out of the moral crisis would be for the President to resign from office,? Aquino said.

?(They mock) our inability to assemble the numbers which would approximate the legions that swelled our protest rallies in the mid-1980s ... but perhaps they are looking at the wrong direction,? Aquino said.

?Twenty-two years after EDSA I, how can we tolerate a President of doubtful legitimacy who can brazenly stonewall the search for truth and who can routinely intimidate dissenters, journalists, businessmen and ordinary citizens with impunity,? she said.

?Our country needs leaders who can inspire our people to work and seize opportunities, pay their taxes and together build a good society,? she said.

The jampacked crowd in the ballroom of the Intercontinental Hotel in Makati City interrupted her with applause.

Aside from members of the MAP and the MBC, those present included partners of PinoyME, a group that raises money for micro-financing projects of which Aquino is head of the steering committee.

Some of the members of this committee are Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. chair Manuel V. Pangilinan, Phinma president Ramon del Rosario Jr., MAP president Albert del Rosario, Metrobank Foundation president Aniceto Sobrepeña, Asian Institute of Management chair Washington Sycip and Planters Development Bank chair Jesus Tambunting.

Also present in Tuesday?s meeting were the Zobel brothers of the Ayala group of companies, Jaime Augusto and Fernando.

People empowerment

The 75-year-old Aquino said she had passed up on a quiet retirement -- ?staying home and just continuing with my paintings?-- and got involved with PinoyME because she felt there was still a lot to be done in terms of empowering the people.

She explained that efforts under PinoyME were aimed at helping change the shape of the economic structure from a pyramid with a wide base of impoverished Filipinos to a diamond with an expanded middle class of empowered and politically mature citizens.

?As a first step toward realizing this vision, the (PinoyME) consortium in February 2006 launched a program to raise P5 billion to empower five million Filipinos -- approximating the number of families living below the poverty line -- in five years,? Aquino said.

?Just think of that for a moment: P5 billion -- even less than the figure purported to represent the kickback in a single government transaction -- can go a long way in empowering hundreds of thousand of our countrymen along a sustainable path out of poverty,? she added.

The audience laughed at this reference to the scandal-ridden, $329-million National Broadband Network deal with ZTE Corp. of China, the cost of which Senate witness Rodolfo ?Jun? Lozada Jr. said included $130 million for bribes.

Aquino discounted the claims of what she described as cynics, who say that people power had passed away ?out of sheer weariness and frustration at the seeming futility of trying to make our democracy work.?

Let thousands do it

Aquino said that she had been calling on Ms Arroyo to step down since July 2005 in the midst of the ?Hello Garci? wiretapping scandal that the opposition said was evidence the President stole the 2004 election -- a charge she has denied.

?Back then I made the call face-to-face and along with five bishops,? Aquino said.

When asked later whether she believed Arroyo would heed such calls this time, Aquino said: ?Apparently being kulit (nagging) does not work with her, but maybe if there were thousands of us making that call she would listen.?

?That is why I am inviting all of you to join ?Masses for Truth,?? Aquino said. ?You should hear Jun Lozada, the next is scheduled on March 2 at the University of Santo Tomas.?

Interfaith rally

Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay said that 90 percent of what transpired in EDSA I was happening now.

Binay, who is president of the United Opposition, said that elements of people power were becoming more evident each day -- clergy members asking for the President?s resignation, universities joining the call and the general public growing increasingly restive.

?We should see people power not as an event, but a process,? he said. ?The planned interfaith rally on Ayala Avenue on Friday is a manifestation of people power.? With a report from DJ Yap