Besides these, Lozada said, it was standard practice to overprice government projects by 20 percent. The overprice on the NBN deal is so far the biggest under the Arroyo administration, whose list of overpriced projects includes the Call Centers in State Universities project (P575 million, or $12.46 million based on last year’s average exchange rate, in “unaccounted” funds), the President Diosdado Macapagal Avenue project (overpriced by P536 million or $10.51 million at the 2001 average exchange rate of $1:P50.99), the Cyber Education project, the IMPSA deal, and the Comelec counting machines.

Lozada’s testimonies came in the same week that the elder De Venecia was ousted from the House Speakership and replaced by staunch Malacañang ally Davao Rep. Prospero Nograles. The elder De Venecia is said to have earned Malacañang’s ire for failing to stop his son from testifying on the NBN scam.

Calls for resignation, removal

Lozada’s exposés on corruption has revived calls for the resignation or removal of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who has reaped condemnation for the spate of extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations, electoral fraud, and large-scale corruption under her watch. The rally last Feb. 15 in Makati City – which yielded an estimated turnout of 15,000-20,000 – is the first in what is intended to be a new series of protests launched as a response to corruption under the Arroyo regime.

Lozada and the younger De Venecia have the support of Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), who has called for “communal action” for truth. Said Lagdameo in a Feb. 10 statement:

“Truth hurts. Truth liberates. But the truth must be served. The truth will set our country free…

“Only the truth, not lies and deceits, will set our country free. This truth challenges us now to communal action.”

Lagdameo had previously signed a joint statement calling for a rejection of “morally bankrupt” government.

The Makati Business Club (MBC), another influential group, has also expressed support for a possible people-power uprising similar to those that ousted Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada in 1986 and 2001, respectively; but stated it would not favor a military takeover.

Vice President Noli de Castro has, in television interviews, expressed willingness to take over the reins of government as constitutional successor should Arroyo be removed from power or forced to resign from office.

Meanwhile, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison, in a Feb. 15 statement e-mailed to media from his base in the Netherlands where he has been seeking asylum since the cancellation of his passport in 1988, said Arroyo is “ripe for ouster” by the broad mass movement.

“The sheer growth of the legal and peaceful mass actions in the national capital region and on a national scale in the coming days, weeks and months can encourage the military and police to withdraw support from the Arroyo ruling clique and can suffice to cause the resignation, impeachment or outright ouster of the illegitimate and morally bankrupt president,” Sison said.

The younger De Venecia said he certainly hopes the mass actions would lead to Arroyo’s resignation.

“This is too much already,” he said on corruption under the Arroyo government. “The Filipino masses can no longer take it. The middle classes can no longer take it…”

“My call is for her to step down,” he said of Arroyo.(Bulatlat.com)

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