Velarde: People just waiting for Arroyo to end term
By Juliet Labog-Javellana
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:55:00 07/24/2008
If President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo can sit pretty, it’s because the people are just patiently waiting for her to complete her term in 2010.
This view was expressed by El Shaddai leader Bro. Mike Velarde, the President’s spiritual adviser, when asked about the implications of a recent Social Weather Stations survey that found Ms Arroyo to be the most unpopular post-EDSA uprising leader.
In Velarde’s estimation, there won’t be any more ouster moves against Ms Arroyo unless her allies move to extend her term.
“Wala na (No more),” he said, despite the SWS survey showing Ms Arroyo with a negative 38-percent rating, said to be the lowest received by a President since the Marcos dictatorship was overthrown in 1986.
But Velarde has a warning to administration officials.
“Just don’t give the people a reason [to seek Ms Arroyo’s ouster] because the people are just counting the days up to 2010,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Tuesday.
“Tanggap na ng mga tao na nandyan na ang paghihirap (The people have accepted the suffering),” he said, adding that if administration officials move to extend their term through such means as Charter change, “that will be the tipping point.”
Velarde has opposed a Charter change move spearheaded by the House of Representatives.
In December 2006, he warned that he would mobilize his Catholic charismatic group to stop a constituent-assembly plan then being rushed by the House without the participation of the Senate. The House leaders backed off, and the plan was shelved.
Velarde on Tuesday said that he would continue to oppose any move to amend the Constitution at this time because it would be seen as part of a strategy to extend the President’s stay in power.
Not wholly to blame
But Velarde also said Ms Arroyo was not wholly to blame for her poor rating in the SWS survey.
“It’s not entirely her own making. This administration started at the wrong time and [with] the wrong approach. It was unpopular from the very beginning because of Erap,” he said, referring to the ouster of President Joseph Estrada in 2001, which allowed Ms Arroyo to take power.
“From that, it was hard for her to recover—[a situation] now coupled with so many controversies [in her administration],” he said.
Velarde said Ms Arroyo’s Cabinet should share the blame for the low rating: “The unpopularity can also be attributed to the people around her.”
But he batted for the closure of the Senate inquiry into the National Broadband Network (NBN) project with China’s ZTE Corp., one of the biggest scandals to hit the Arroyo administration.
“The ZTE [issue] must be closed; it’s a settled issue,” Velarde said.
He pointed out that the NBN-ZTE contract had been rescinded by the President, and that the Supreme Court had already ruled that the discussions on this project were covered by executive privilege.
“So it’s time for the Senate committees to make their report to the people,” Velarde said.
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