Michael Lim Ubac
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—A group of former Cabinet members and other past ranking officials Friday “indicted” President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for her failed promises, and said that for seven years she had wrought “seven curses” on the nation that left it “enfeebled” and impoverished.

Preempting the State of the Nation Address that Ms Arroyo is to deliver on Monday before Congress, the Former Senior Government Officials (FSGO) presented “A Stolen, Not a Strong, Republic,” its strongly worded take on the current Philippine situation.

The FSGO said Ms Arroyo “at the head of our government is the worst threat to the state of our nation.”

“The person pretending to tell us about the dire state of our nation is the very same person who has done the most to destroy the very foundations of our nation, sell its future to its exploiters and abusers, and consign the poor and middle class to deeper poverty and worse despair,” it said.

Asked to comment on the FSGO statement, Presidential Management Staff Secretary Cerge Remonde said:

“These people would know how difficult and how challenging governance is … They’ve had their time and what I can say to them is that this administration can stand on its record, and its record is better than how [they] managed their respective government positions during their time. And since their time is over and now is our responsibility, I hope they’ll give us a chance.”

Roll call

The FSGO’s own “State of the Nation Address” was read by former senator Vicente Paterno to an audience at the De la Salle University in Manila that included corruption whistleblower Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., Leah Navarro of the Black and White Movement, former Akbayan party-list representative Etta Rosales, anticrime crusader Tessie Ang-Sy, civil society member Nini Quezon-Avanceña, Alberto Lim of the Makati Business Club, and La Salle Brothers.

The others present included such ex-members of the Arroyo Cabinet as Corazon Soliman, Karina David, Cesar Purisima and Teresita Deles, and officials of past administrations like Benjamin Diokno, Senen Bacani, Tomas Africa, Rodolfo Reyes, Lito Banayo, Fulgencio Factoran and Narzalina Lim.

Also present was Sixto Roxas, who headed the economic planning agency under Ms Arroyo’s late father, President Diosdado Macapagal.

Paterno’s reading was followed by an open forum. At the end, the FSGO members raised their fists and sang the activist anthem “Bayan Ko.”

The FSGO listed “seven curses”: a country unable to feed its people because of mismanagement of the agricultural sector; worsening poverty and increasing inequality; deteriorating basic social services; cancer of corruption; wanton abuse of presidential power; illegitimate presidency; and a nation robbed of dignity, unity, hope and future.

It said these “curses” defined “our shared suffering as a nation these past seven years.”

“A very large share of these truly enormous burdens from dysfunctional governance is added to the already heavy burden on [poor Filipinos], making their suffering much harsher, their poverty much harder to overcome, and even impeding their own efforts to survive and prosper,” it said.

The FSGO said Ms Arroyo had promised the nation a strong republic but “we have realized that she is running a stolen republic.”

“Thus far, we have seen her trying only to keep what she has stolen,” it said.

Karina David said Ms Arroyo had also fared badly in a survey among FSGO members on the performance of various administrations from 1998 to 2008. She said Ms Arroyo garnered a total score of 0.1 on a scale of from 1.0 to 5.0, with 5.0 as the highest.

Expertise

Paterno said that as a group of executives in different administrations since that of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, the FSGO had the expertise to examine the record of the incumbent. He said the nation’s true state could be discerned, not in the speeches of the President, but in “evidence around us.”

Paterno said Ms Arroyo used the powers of the presidency “irresponsibly and selfishly,” and that the “willful and systematic violation” of constitutional mandates harmed and would continue to harm the nation.

“The image of Emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burned has an echo for us Filipinos today,” he said. “It is the image of our officials’ downing toasts to the leadership of [Ms Arroyo] in New York, Washington and Las Vegas while Filipinos were gasping for air and drowning in the Visayas, a region which up to this time had always been a loyal believer in this government.”

Paterno added: “Corruption has become pervasive, persistent, prolific. And the President, instead of fighting it, has become its prime practitioner and protector. She corrupted the already weak electoral process, the already diminished civil service, and the already politicized public investment and fiscal programs.

“By committing crimes without punishment, abusing power without restraint, and violating rules with impunity yet suffering no adverse consequence, [Ms] Arroyo has turned our most valued principle of ‘public office is a public trust’ into a perversion: ‘Public office is a key to whatever you can get away with.’”

Dark side

Paterno said abuse of presidential power was exemplified by former undersecretary of agriculture Jocelyn Bolante, who he said “represented the worst” of Ms Arroyo’s appointees from 2001 up to the 2004 elections.

Bolante, nicknamed Joc-Joc, is accused of masterminding the diversion of P728 million in fertilizer funds to “ghost” foundations and urban congressional districts to finance Ms Arroyo’s election campaign. He is held in detention in the United States, where he is seeking asylum.

Paterno also said that after the “Hello, Garci” wiretapping scandal in 2005—which suggested fraud in the 2004 presidential election—many capable people left the government for various reasons.

“The balance of power within the GMA [Arroyo] administration between its dark and bright sides tipped radically in favor of the dark side. A new type of presidential appointee along the Joc-Joc Bolante brand dominates,” he said.

Alluding to the administration’s defeated senatorial candidates, Paterno said the appointment to government of others “already rejected by the electorate in 2007 will further darken the complexion of her Cabinet.”

He said Ms Arroyo’s appointees had “no pretense of serving the nation, just the President,” or were “former politicians who eat scandals for breakfast and have acquired callousness to controversy,” or “bureaucrats who see this administration as an opportunity for one more feeding at the public trough before retirement and obscurity.”

Paterno said the FSGO reserved special criticism for Romulo Neri, the incoming Social Security System administrator, who, after exposing an attempted bribery in the national broadband network (NBN) deal with ZTE Corp. of China, “became one of the keepers of evil secrets, protected by the talisman of ‘executive privilege’ as long as he remains in a Cabinet position.”

Re-imagining the nation

Paterno also said that under the Arroyo administration, the Philippines earned global disrepute for forced disappearance and extrajudicial killing of journalists and political activists.

To reclaim democracy, the FSGO has committed to work with political institutions for reform and justice, he said.

Paterno said the group wanted to “re-imagine the nation as something far better and more capable” than the one that Ms Arroyo will paint in her State of the Nation Address on Monday.

“This administration may have stolen the republic, but it will not rob us of our hopes,” he said.

With a report from Christine O. Avendaño; with editing by INQUIRER.net