Press Release
February 2, 2006
GMA FACES POLITICAL ISOLATION -- PIMENTEL
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban)
said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is facing increasing
political isolation as she continues to lose the support of key
sectors and allies.
Pimentel said the biggest blow to the President so far is the severe
rebuke she received from the Catholic Bishops Conference of the
Philippines over her administrations acts of evasion and
obstruction behind the Hello Garci tapes and other scandals that
have caused the erosion of public trust in her presidency.
He said the CBCP pastoral statement which blamed electoral fraud and
corruption for the administrations lack of credibility and
legitimacy is tantamount to a withdrawal of support from the
President.
If this is not the message that the Catholic bishops want to
impart, then why would Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, CBCP
president, state that resignation remains an option for the
President? the minority leader remarked.
Considering the moral influence that the Catholic bishops wield in
upholding truth and justice, Pimentel said the injurious impact of
the CBCPs critical pastoral statement on the Arroyo presidency
cannot be underestimated.
He said the tremendous weight that CBCPs criticisms carry prompted
Malacañang
and its congressional allies to make a sudden turnabout
on the no-election proposal by declaring that they now favor the
holding of elections in 2007.
Pimentel said that even before the issuance of the Jan. 30 CBCP
pastoral letter, the Arroyo presidency had already been mortally
wounded by the breakaway of several Cabinet members, former Cabinet
members and other administration officials and legislative leaders.
He said even former President Fidel V. Ramos has attempted to
distance himself from the administration by repudiating the
no-election proposal that the Palace had intended to use as a bribe
to lawmakers and local government officials who would support
Charter Change and Mrs. Arroyos retention in office up to 2010.
Pimentel said that while Arroyo presidency keeps losing the support
from the religious, business, labor, farmers, civil servants, youth
and other sectors, the diverse anti-Arroyo and opposition groups
have moved to consolidate their forces as they prepare to mobilize
the masses of people for future protest actions.
He said the broadening of mass support for a change in the national
leadership, plus the restiveness in the military and police, will
make it untenable for the President to keep herself in power.
Given these circumstances, there are good reasons to hope that
President Arroyo will voluntarily step down and a recourse to
violent and extra-constitutional means of changing the government
will be avoided, Pimentel said.
Should the President resign, Senate President Franklin Drilon will
temporarily succeed her and a special presidential election should
be held as early as mandated by the Constitution, hopefully by April
of this year. |