WORST STILL TO COME FOR GMA -- PIMENTEL

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said the pressure for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign continues to build up contrary to Malacañang's claim that it is tapering off.

Pimentel said National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales is merely trying to soothe the President's frayed nerves by saying that the "worst is over" after about 70,000 people held an inter-faith rally in Makati City early this month to press for her resignation.

"The worst is far from over for Gloria. The worst is still to come," he said.

He said the President has every reason to worry over the resignation calls in view of the fact that students and teachers in both private and public schools; bishops, priests, minister and nuns from the Catholic and Protestant churches and born-again Christian and evangelical groups; businessmen, workers, peasants and fishermen are now at the forefront of the anti-Arroyo street protests while politicians have been relegated to the sidelines.

Pimentel said Mrs. Arroyo is obviously in a state of panic by summoning local government officials to Malacañang or calling them up to plead with them for their support in the face of the aggravating political crisis.

He said local government executives are easily cajoled by Malacañang into toeing its line on political issues because of fear of reprisal by withholding or rejecting financial aid from the national government.

But not all mayors or governors whom the President counts as her allies can be cowed to express their support, the senator from Mindanao said.

According to Pimentel, a mayor of a big city in Mindanao told the President about two weeks ago that what she needed now was not LGU statements of support but for her to tell the truth about the national broadband scandal.

He said this only showed how the President is desperately trying to make the people believe that she is still enjoying popular support despite public opinion surveys showing that more than 70 percent of the Filipinos favors her resignation from office.

"What I am trying to say is that there is a continuing buildup of pressure for Gloria to speak the truth and step down. And this is true for practically the entire nation, and not only here in Metro Manila," Pimentel said.

Reacting to Mrs. Arroyo's insistence that she will not step down until her term is over in 2010, Pimentel said the circumstances are coming to a point which will give her no choice but to resign.

He said the series of full-page political advertisements in national newspapers in which local officials from various provinces, cities and municipalities supposedly reaffirm their support for the President could not have been paid by the local governments concerned since they are always complaining of poor finances.

He said it is simply incredulous and outrageous that resolutions of support for the President from small and poor municipalities in Negros Occidental and Aurora provinces will find their way in full-page newspaper ads which cost from P150,000 to P200,000 each which they simply could not afford.

Pimentel said the money spent on these newspaper ads could have come from the intelligence, discretionary and other confidential funds of the President.

"I think the next best thing is to have these funds audited by the Commission on Audit to lay the basis for whatever actions that we will take on that issue," he said.