Civil society groups tell GMA, Noli to quit, call for snap polls

The Daily Tribune 11/08/2007

Giving up on the impeachment process to remove President Arroyo, motley groups calling themselves “civil society” yes-terday held a press conference and launched their call for snap elections, while demanding the resignation of Mrs. Arroyo and her Vice President Noli de Castro.
With the resignation of both top officials, snap presidential polls can be called within 60 days, the manifesto issued by the group read.

This was signed by former and incumbent political, former military, and media personalities.
Among those who signed were Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, former Sen. Serge Osmeña, Lt. Gen. Romeo Dominguez, Renato Constantino Jr. and lawyer Harry Roque of the University of the Philippines-College of Law.

Malacañang, reacting to the snap polls call, quickly thumbed it down.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita dismissed the calls, saying the proposal is baseless.
“It is baseless, coming from the critics. We cannot hope to satisfy everybody. We will not give much attention to them,” Ermita said.

The chief Palace aide believes that the manifesto calling for snap elections will not “hold water.”
In a press conference at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City, the groups behind the manifesto also said the current impeach-ment complaint filed at the House of Representatives was not a feasible way to remove Mrs. Arroyo from the presidency.

There have been three attempts in as many years, to have the President impeached, but these have always been killed by Mrs. Arroyo’s allies.

A confident Ermita predicted that the Ruel Pulido complaint will be killed in two weeks.

The Gloria-Noli resign groups stated in their manifesto that “the time we have been waiting for has come. Gloria and Noli must go for the benefit of our people and the country and even for their own sake,” adding, “at no time since the ‘Hello Garci’ scandal had the President been linked directly to acts of bribery, corruption and betrayal of public trust.

The talk is no longer whether GMA should finish her term in 2010 but rather how to put an end to a graft-ridden and utterly immoral regime that no longer deserves to stay a day longer in office. Together with the people, we must find a way to remove her from office this year or early next year in a manner that is constitutional, peaceful, democratic and orderly.”

There were options offered, one of which is to conduct a presidential special election in 2008 as provided for under the Constitution, stressing that if snap polls aren’t held, this translates to Mrs. Arroyo continued governance “that cannot but bring to our country dishonor, destitution and ruin.”

The other option, the manifesto said, is to remove both the president and the vice president by force and forthwith install a “caretaker” government. This has been tried many times before but so far has not been quite successful.

“This is not to say however that we will discourage the people from expressing their outrage by other means. This has happened before there is no reason it cannot be done again. The point is, this government must go by all means possible, whether by constitutional or an extra-constitutional means. This government has committed such abuse of power as to allow the people the right to employ any means necessary for the redress of their grievances.”
The constitutional route was claimed to be preferred by the groups, and they have stated that their aim, through this Resign Gloria-Noli call to be about snap elections, is “to force the President and the Vice-President to resign before the end of the year.”

The groups claimed that “all that the people must do is to exert pressure by telling all and sundry that their President has betrayed their trust and violated her oath of office when she succumbed to the high crimes of bribery, graft and corruption. The impeachment case filed against Gloria for this purpose will provide the opportunity to unload to the public the venalities committed by the President herself. If the impeachment try is defeated, the case may be brought directly to the people for them to render a contrary verdict. The pressure so created must be so powerful as to leave to the President and her government no other choice but to resign. In other words, her ability to govern must be so distracted by corruption charges until she realizes that the remaining years of her term would be better spent providing for her own safety rather than trying to bequeath a legacy of a failed presidency.

Apart from this constitutional route by way of congressional initiative the only other option decisive enough to make the President and the Vice-President resign is a resort to “extra” or “intra” constitutional means, that is by way of a military intervention or mass uprising. “
At the press conference, it was stated by Argee Guevarra of the All Reform Movement of Lawyers, that “We recognize any and all efforts to oust the present administration but, based on our frank assessment, impeachment faces an uphill battle. We all know impeachment is a numbers game.”

The petition does not have a target number and that they do not intend to submit the manifesto the Office of the President or Office of the Vice-president.

Guevarra explained that they are a diverse group of organization and this petition is not an appeal to Mrs. Arroyo’s conscience but it is meant to awaken the people. Gina Peralta-Elorde, Sherwin C. Olaes and Tribune wires