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Even FVR not buying truth commission

FORMER President Fidel Ramos yesterday said a truth commission that President Arroyo is creating would prolong, instead of solve, the crisis the country is facing.

He pushed for his proposed charter change, saying it is the key to solving the country’s problems.

"The investigations, resignation, impeachment, truth commission, etc., called for by various groups are shortcut measures which will be protracted, acrimonious, divisive and inconclusive," Ramos told the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines.

"On the other hand, both immediate and long-term problems of the country can be addressed and resolved by constitutional reform – if we all agree to sacrifice for the common good and work harder following a systematic timeframe," the former President said.

He said the Constitution states that it can be amended after five years.

"That period lapsed on February 1992 during the time of [former] President (Corazon) Aquino," he said.

Ramos said when he ran for president in 1992, he campaigned for a parliamentary system.

In a speech on July 8, Ramos said a shift in government would be a better solution to the crisis instead of another uprising to remove Arroyo. He proposed a creation of "High Council of Filipino Leaders" composed of representatives from different sectors and which excludes the incumbent officials.

He said he had stressed then he was not interested in becoming a member of the council, much less becoming the next prime minister in a parliamentary system.

"I have never been demoted in my political life," the former President, who was also a former AFP chief of staff and former defense secretary, said.

He said he is supporting the parliamentary form for the government to ensure continuity.

"If the next administration would be elected, there will be something to start, to continue, and will not have to start at square one again," he said.

"In the presidential system, there is a tendency to go back to square one, sweeping away what your predecessor had started," he said.

The Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino of former President Joseph Estrada belittled the commission.

Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco, PMP-NCR spokesman, said the proposed commission, aside from being unconstitutional, would be doomed from Day 1 especially since the public’s first presumption was that it was organized to give Arroyo some leeway to wriggle out of the political crisis for which she was entirely to blame.

"This is merely one more indication of how tenaciously Mrs. Arroyo intends to cling on to power, despite overwhelming disenchantment and rejection of the Filipino people," Tiangco said. "Mrs. Arroyo obviously hopes the commission will ferret out the `truth’ but only as she sees it, and not as the rest of us do."

Besides, he said, there was no need to tell the public what crimes Arroyo had committed. The "Hello Garci" recordings "clearly prove she is an illegitimate president and that she was in cahoots with an extremely corrupt Comelec official who felt no guilt or remorse over destroying an electoral process that he was duty bound to protect and secure," he said.

He also said Arroyo’s televised public "apology" last June 27 rendered the creation of a commission inconsequential.

"However, if Mrs. Arroyo insists on creating this commission, then she might as well appoint the following: Cong. Prospero Pichay, Sec. Ignacio Bunye, Bishop Fernando Capalla, Sec. Mike Defensor and Gov. Luis `Chavit’ Singson," he said.

"She obviously intends for the commission to find her not guilty of betraying the public trust or violating the Constitution. So why not appoint people who are most likely to parrot her own line that she has done nothing wrong?" Tiangco added.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita the public must allow the commission to be organized and do its job before judging it.

Arroyo Thursday night reiterated she intends to complete her mandate.

The President made the announcement before the gathering of the World Hope Christian Fellowship in Quezon City.

"…I’m here humbled but determined to do what I must do based on the mandate that the people gave me in the last election and that is work for fundamental and even difficult reforms so that we’ll be able to sustain what must be done to make the lives of the poor better," she said.

Ricardo Saludo, secretary to the Cabinet, said Malacañang decided to create a commission because people are starting to lose trust not only in the President but also in other government institutions.

But he said the body would be purely for fact finding and recommendatory.

"It will not determine fault or innocence of individuals since this can be handled by other government institutions," he told a forum sponsored by the Bishops Businessmen’s Conference in Makati.

Various groups are calling for the creation of the commission to verify allegations that President Arroyo cheated in the May 2004 elections. – JP Lopez, Jocelyn Montemayor and Ashzel Hachero

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