The People Must Remind the President of Her Obligation to Public Trust

Statement of FSGO

We are former senior government officials who from experience know that
strong democratic institutions are crucial to our progress as a whole nation.
The most important institution our people depend on is the Office of the
President. The responsible exercise of Presidential power is an important
instrument for serving our nation's interests. A President that leads with
righteousness and wisdom is a great blessing. A President that serves evil is
a terrible curse. To secure a blessing and avoid a curse in the Presidency, the
founding leaders of our democracy established a system of checks and
balances.

The failure of checks and balances on the Presidency has allowed many past
scandals to descend to a limbo of unresolved crimes against the public trust.
Fertilizer scam. Election cheating. Shopping bags of cash in Malacanang.
The NBN-ZTE scandal is just the latest monster in a larger pile of garbage
from previous scandals. Our people are not going to let this one slip into the
limbo again. Our search for truth, accountability and reforms must advance
by getting our institutions to confront and resolve the corruption and cover
up of this deal.

Our people have asked: Is President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo part of the
NBN-ZTE corruption and cover up? She must act to help bring out the full
truth about this deal if her hands are truly clean. The Arroyo Presidency
must shelter the truth or it will be judged as a fortress for lies.
Our previous statement asked the President to take actions that were
intended to demonstrate that indeed, like the people, she is against
corruption and is angry at those engaged in it. Ordinary citizens can
recognize the actions we asked of the President as reasonable under the
present conditions: let the primary witness, Secretary Neri, testify without
limitation; surrender all pertinent public documents on the deal to the
Senate; follow usual administrative procedures by placing under preventive
suspension those people under a cloud of doubt while an investigation is
proceeding.

Since the President had already cancelled a deal that she judged tainted by
corruption, these actions are logical and prudent. We demanded these
actions not as an interest group but as a straightforward way for Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo to demonstrate that she is a blessing not a curse in the
Office of the President. We got involved because we saw it as our civic duty
to help start the repair and rehabilitation of our institutions already severely
damaged from past scandals. By doing the actions we called for, the
President would have shown her respect of the system of checks and balance
of our democracy by cooperating fully with the Senate to give our people the
full picture of the corruption and cover up of the NBN-ZTE deal.
Even as we issued our statement, however, the President's spokepersons
were summarily dismissing these demands. Later her advisers even
criticized and threatened us for making these demands. The President is very
poorly served by these spokespersons and advisers.

Revoking EO 464 does not serve the truth if Neri still invokes executive
privilege and does not testify and, if, despite previous statements to the
contrary, all records of the NBN-ZTE project have still not been submitted
to the Senate. We believe the Supreme Court or the Senate must do their
respective duties to serve the truth, but the President has a greater obligation.
She has the greatest stake in the Senate investigation coming out with the
truth or the people will conclude she hides behind lies and uses the power of
her office to smother the truth.

We conclude that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo refuses to serve the
people's demand for truth about a matter of great public interest. We see in
this refusal, despite ample chances and many sound reasons, a clear basis for
our people to find her complicit with and, in fact, at the center of, the
corruption and cover up of the NBN-ZTE deal.

We express our loss of confidence in her. As a consequence wequestion not
only her moral authority to govern, but also her ability to govern given the
mounting garbage of lies and obfuscation that she is constrained to build to
cover up the increasing stench of corruption in her administration.

We ask those directly appointed by the President if they believe, in their
heart of hearts, that they are keeping faith with their signed oath to defend
and protect the nation¢s Constitution and its laws in the face of blatant,
shameless corruption and violation of individual rights.

We ask those in the civil service and foreign service to examine their
conscience to discern if their continued service in this Administration is not
in fact helping prop up a regime that, at best abets large-scale corruption, lies
and coverup, and at worst is a party to them.

We call on our fellow citizens to press their demand for a just resolution of
governance issues and violation of the public trust raised against the
President.

For our part, we pledge to use our combined knowledge, capabilities and
influence to help as many of our people understand the issues and explain
the known facts surrounding the many instances of corruption and encourage them to act in accordance with the dictates of their consciense.
We shall work with other sectors to put forward and apply other measures to
make our other democratic institutions work better in preventing, exposing
and punishing corruption at any level of our government starting at the very
top.

Fighting Corruption is never Harmful to the Economy

Fighting Corruption is never Harmful to the Economy

We are former senior economic officials who have devoted ourselves to understanding
the Philippine economy and the various challenges it faces. We do not play politics. We do not ask anything for ourselves. Our objective is a truly sound and sustainable economy – one built on truth, honesty and hard work worthy of all decent Filipinos.

The Arroyo Administration tells us that the economy is on a momentum; that it has given us an unprecedented 28 quarters of uninterrupted growth; that the economy has grown its fastest in the last 31 years. And this is because, she says, the President focuses on the economy like "a laser beam". These insistent reminders are made to counter the widespread clamor for truth and accountability in government in the wake of the NBNZTE scandal and following many other unresolved corruption scandals of this
administration. The public demand for government to fight corruption is dismissed as
merely the efforts of oppositionists and destabilizers who cannot wait for the 2010
elections. Some elements in the business sector are even arguing that we should not rock the boat when we are moving ahead so well; that mounting demands for truth and
accountability in government can only risk losing the economic gains we have already
made.

From our knowledge about our economy, we judge these sentiments to be mere politics,
and the worst type of politics at that. Corruption is never good for the economy.
Corruption in the Office of the President is a curse on our economy. Fighting corruption, therefore, never harms the economy. Any economic gains based on corruption in government are mere illusions, are of limited benefit, and cannot last. Only transparency, accountability and fair play are enduring foundations for a strong economy.

No, our economy is not gaining momentum. First, there is growing concern among
experts about glaring and unprecedented inconsistencies in official statistics on growth, income and poverty that raise doubts about the reliability of the economic growth data. Second, even recent official poverty statistics affirm that whatever economic growth was achieved in the past 5 years has benefited only a few. Third, this "growth" had even swelled the ranks of the poor by almost four million additional Filipinos. Poverty has risen not only in absolute numbers, but in relative terms as well, with the proportion of poor families rising from 24 percent to 27 percent between 2003 and 2006. Our economy cannot gain momentum when its actual growth is much lower than its reported numbers, when whatever growth occurred benefited only a few, when more Filipinos slide into poverty despite this growth.

Mrs. Arroyo's economy is just a "power point mirage", good for presentations in airconditioned conference rooms but false and fake to ordinary Filipinos struggling to make a living. It is against this public relations fakery that our people now demand the truth and accountability about massive corruption from the Office of the President. Corruption has taken a heavy toll on the economy, and its worst victims are the poor who are deprived of vital social services that the stolen billions could have funded.

No country ever built a strong and vibrant economy on the corruption, lies and abuses of its leaders. Without people's trust in their government, our economy will struggle to survive and remain on shaky ground. For an economy to flourish and remain strong,
policies, laws and contracts must be enforced and respected, transactions must be
transparent, the playing field must be level, and fair competition must prevail. A
government that governs based on truth and accountability proceeds from fundamental
values that must be served first and foremost, before we can ever attain a vigorous
economy that will truly uplift the lives of every Filipino long into the future.

[Signed by FSGO Economic Cluster Members]

Lozada lauded for his courage in revealing the truth about ZTE-NBN deal

BLOWING their whistles in support of national broadband network project
whistle blower Rodolfo Noel "Jun" Lozada Jr., members of the Freedom from
Debt Coalition today staged a protest action in front of the Senate
condemning the alleged role of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo in the
controversial deal.

Former House Representative and now FDC vice president Etta Rosales lauded
Lozada for his courage in revealing what he knows about the involvement of
former Commission on Election chair Benjamin Abalos and Mrs. Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo's husband in the $329-million ZTE-NBN deal.

"The ZTE-NBN deal is a glaring example of how the government conducts its
business concerning billions of dollars at the expense of the taxpayers who
will shoulder the burden of footing the overpriced bill. Jun Lozada is right
in saying that this deal is 'one transactional example of a dysfunctional
government procurement' system," said Rosales.

In his press conference Wednesday morning at the De La Salle Greenhills,
Lozada revealed that when he left the project in January 18, 2007, the deal
was only worth $262 million. The following month, the Office of the
President issued an executive order transferring the Telos, the implementing
agency of the NBN project, under the Department of Transportation and
Communication. After two months, Lozada was surprised to learn that the
project was approved at $329 million, not through the originally planned
build-operate-transfer scheme but through a loan from China.

Lozada also narrated how Chairman Abalos threatened to have him killed
because the then COMELEC official wanted to protect his $130 million
commission from the project.

"Lozada was allegedly asked by NEDA chief Romulo Neri to 'moderate their
greed'. Indeed, this case has clearly exposed the rapacity that has become
the hallmark of this Arroyo administration and its officials. Enough is
enough!" exclaimed the former activist lawmaker.

"We fought for the cancellation of this overpriced project after Joey De
Venecia exposed the anomalies involved, because just like its analog
predecessor, the Telepono sa Barangay, it has the potential of becoming a
'white elephant' project," said Rosales.

"The ZTE-NBN deal could be Mrs. Arroyo's waterloo. We just hope that nothing
bad will happen to Jun Lozada and his family for breaking the code of omerta
regarding this anomalous deal," stressed Rosales.

Lozada lauded for his courage in revealing the truth about ZTE-NBN deal

BLOWING their whistles in support of national broadband network project
whistle blower Rodolfo Noel "Jun" Lozada Jr., members of the Freedom from
Debt Coalition today staged a protest action in front of the Senate
condemning the alleged role of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo in the
controversial deal.

Former House Representative and now FDC vice president Etta Rosales lauded
Lozada for his courage in revealing what he knows about the involvement of
former Commission on Election chair Benjamin Abalos and Mrs. Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo's husband in the $329-million ZTE-NBN deal.

"The ZTE-NBN deal is a glaring example of how the government conducts its
business concerning billions of dollars at the expense of the taxpayers who
will shoulder the burden of footing the overpriced bill. Jun Lozada is right
in saying that this deal is 'one transactional example of a dysfunctional
government procurement' system," said Rosales.

In his press conference Wednesday morning at the De La Salle Greenhills,
Lozada revealed that when he left the project in January 18, 2007, the deal
was only worth $262 million. The following month, the Office of the
President issued an executive order transferring the Telos, the implementing
agency of the NBN project, under the Department of Transportation and
Communication. After two months, Lozada was surprised to learn that the
project was approved at $329 million, not through the originally planned
build-operate-transfer scheme but through a loan from China.

Lozada also narrated how Chairman Abalos threatened to have him killed
because the then COMELEC official wanted to protect his $130 million
commission from the project.

"Lozada was allegedly asked by NEDA chief Romulo Neri to 'moderate their
greed'. Indeed, this case has clearly exposed the rapacity that has become
the hallmark of this Arroyo administration and its officials. Enough is
enough!" exclaimed the former activist lawmaker.

"We fought for the cancellation of this overpriced project after Joey De
Venecia exposed the anomalies involved, because just like its analog
predecessor, the Telepono sa Barangay, it has the potential of becoming a
'white elephant' project," said Rosales.

"The ZTE-NBN deal could be Mrs. Arroyo's waterloo. We just hope that nothing
bad will happen to Jun Lozada and his family for breaking the code of omerta
regarding this anomalous deal," stressed Rosales.

RP debt campaigners to launch petition for the creation of Citizen’s Debt Audit Commission

Campaigners from more than a hundred local and national organizations here will gather on Saturday, January 12, at the St. Joseph College Mater Dei Auditorium, E. Rodriguez St. in Quezon City for the public launch of People’s Petition calling for the creation of an Independent Citizens’ Debt Audit Commission whose members will include civil society leaders, political analysts and respected economists.

In a press briefing, leaders of People Against Illegitimate Debt (PAID!) movement said the event marks the first General Assembly of its member and affiliate organizations and individuals. The event will also feature speakers from the debt campaigns of other countries who will share their experiences and recent major developments in the international debt movement.

Lidy Nacpil, vice president of the Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), said that it has been more than five years since they sounded the alarm of a full-blown fiscal and debt crisis and still the government failed to what is right for the country. She said that among the indicators of the debt and fiscal crisis include: the government’s huge deficit since 1999; interest payments on the National Government (NG) debt has skyrocketed; and, government borrowings have reached unprecedented levels.

“FDC has been campaigning for an official Congressional Audit of Public Debt and Contingent Liabilities and we have been working with lawmakers in the House of Representatives, especially Rep. Edcel Lagman who re-filed a legislative resolution calling for an official audit of all public debts and contingent liabilities. We believe that an Independent Citizens Debt Audit is also crucial. Hence, together with the People Against Illegitimate Debt Movement the process, we are starting the process with then opening of the this new year” said Nacpil, also the international coordinator of Jubilee South.

“The citizen’s initiative will raise questions beyond the limits of the parliamentary initiatives, and by put forward bolder recommendations based on people’s perspective on the problem,” said Nacpil.

PAID! leaders explained that citizen’s debt audit aims to conduct a critical, comprehensive, participatory and transparent examination of the Philippine public debt and contingent liabilities based on: data and existing studies by resource persons and organizations; studies prepared by working groups and technical teams; and, testimonies and inputs from affected communities, sectors and people’s organizations.

The audit also aims to formulate policy proposals and advocacy platforms.

“Last year, we witnessed, through the media, a lot of controversial loan agreements entered into by the current administration as well as its predecessors. The ZTE-National Broadband Network (NBN) project, the World Bank textbook scam, the Cyber Education Project (CEP) and the Austrian Medical Waste Loan are just some examples of these illegitimate debts,” said Nacpil.

FDC described this as the ‘great white elephant stampede’, referring to loan agreements and ‘development projects’ that are on the pipeline or have overwhelming potentials of becoming ‘white elephant’ or useless yet expensive projects.

“This gives further credence to our assertion that a big chunk of debts claimed from the Philippines were spent on unnecessary and over-priced infrastructure programs and projects. These are hidden in our national government budget and expenditure books,” said Nacpil.

During the 13th Congress, the debt watchdog was successful in getting the joint resolution on debt audit passed unanimously by the House of Representatives. However, it was stalled in the Senate due to the inaction of some legislators, coupled with the political crisis involving no less than Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself.

**********

The People Against Illegitimate Debt (PAID!) is a broad network of different social movements, civil society leaders, people’s organizations, communities and personalities that are committed in developing and strengthening a popular movement against illegitimate debt.

It aims to broaden the debt discourse by raising critical questions about the issue by not reducing the problem to mere queries concerning affordability, management and sustainability but rather by posing the question of the illegitimacy of the debt based on historical, political and social roots.

In the immediate, it aims to introduce and popularize the concept of illegitimate debt by campaigning against debts and/or “obligations” that were incurred to finance flawed and anti-people development projects, loans that were conceived by illegitimate governments or debts that undermine genuine human development and ecological balance, while calling for its immediate cancellation and repudiation.

PAID! also intends to build a strong public clamor for the creation of an Independent Citizens’ Debt Audit Commission. This citizens’ initiative will complement the highly awaited Congressional auditing of public debt by filling gaps in the inquiry, raising questions beyond the limits of the parliamentary initiatives, and by putting forward bolder recommendations sourced from the people’s genuine standpoint on the problem.