Arroyo must quit now — Ong

Former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) deputy director Samuel Ong, who claimed to possess the original audiotapes of President Arroyo’s recorded conversations about plans to rig the 2004 presidential election, reiterated yesterday his call for Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation.

"If she refuses to resign for the sake of the country, then the legal process should begin," he told a press conference in Makati City.

Ong said he had turned over the tape to Bishop Teodoro Bacani, one of the Roman Catholic Church’s prominent figures, for safekeeping.

Ong surfaced last Friday and claimed what he called the "mother of all tapes" had been given to him by former buddies in the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP).

The tape contained wiretapped phone conversations purportedly between Mrs. Arroyo and Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano discussing plans to cheat in last year’s polls.

Ong said he expects charges to be filed against him for coming forward but lawyers who have volunteered their services said they are ready to provide bail money.

His lead attorney, Liwayway Vinzons-Chato, said there are eight lawyers including herself defending Ong.

Ong again urged that the tape be examined by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation or the UK’s Scotland Yard to prove its authenticity.

Fearing a possible attempt on his life, Ong had taken sanctuary at San Carlos seminary in Guadalupe, Makati City.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said his department was considering charges of inciting to sedition and violation of the anti-wiretapping law against Ong.

A search warrant will be obtained on Tuesday to allow the NBI to search the Roman Catholic seminary.

"We can’t arrest him without a warrant of arrest. We can’t do that without an arrest warrant from the court," Gonzalez said, adding that Ong came forward but was "imagining his own shadow in doing that and he wants to get enough mileage (to) write his autobiography."

Gonzalez said he had received unconfirmed reports that former National Labor Relations Commission chief Roy Señeres, who was earlier accused of plotting to undermine the Arroyo administration, had been talking to embassies about finding asylum for Ong.

Malacañang said yesterday it would not hesitate to use the full force of the law against those trying to destabilize the government.

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye called for "sobriety" and urged the public to be "discerning."

"We believe some laws were violated so this must be investigated. Let us go through the normal process," Bunye said. "While we are doing this, what is important for us is to remain calm, prudent and sober and avoid situations that will bring about chaos."

The Arroyo administration, he said, is "prepared to face all the challenges being raised against the national leadership and to uphold the truth and the law without hesitation."

Bunye also urged anti-Arroyo forces to go by the law in pursuing challenges against the President.

"We have the processes and these are very clearly defined under our rules. It is important to follow the law because if not there will be anarchy."

Police and military units in Metro Manila had earlier been put on high alert amid reports of planned anti-government protests seeking to exploit calls for the ouster of President Arroyo.

Yesterday, about 300 police officers clashed with dozens of protesters loyal to former President Joseph Estrada who had assembled outside San Carlos seminary to show support for Ong.

Over a dozen police checkpoints have been put up across the metropolis to monitor any anti-government protests.

National Capital Region Police Office chief Director Vidal Querol said police will be strict with the "no permit, no rally" policy but will observe "maximum tolerance" in dealing with protesters.

Some opposition figures went to the seminary to see Ong. Among them was Susan Roces, widow of movie icon Fernando Poe Jr., who had accused Mrs. Arroyo of robbing him of victory in the presidential polls.

Poe’s electoral protest was junked by the Supreme Court in March. He died of a stroke in December.

Ong and Roces embraced each other and wept, lawyer Luis Sison told reporters. "It was as if they had not seen each other for many years," he said, although the two had never met previously.

"I was only there to visit and see how he’s doing," Roces later told reporters. "He was only asking for fair treatment."

She was accompanied by Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, a Poe ally.

Opposition senators Luisa Ejercito, Jinggoy Estrada, Jamby Madrigal and Sergio Osmeña III also visited Ong.

Ongs’s fears of a possible attempt on his life peaked yesterday after several men in a car fled on foot after being discovered inside the seminary compound Friday night.

Sison peeked into the vehicle the following morning and saw a rifle. No one at the seminary owns the car, Sison said, prompting him to suspect the men were government spies.

Police led by Chief Superintendent Wilfredo Garcia, director of the Southern Police District, went to the seminary to investigate but were not allowed to enter.

Sison said they would not allow the police to check the vehicle without a search warrant.

Ong has sought protection from the influential Catholic Church but church officials want him out of the seminary.

"Giving shelter and assisting the security of the concerned belongs to the pastoral solicitude of the Church but does not necessarily make it part sharer of the complaint," said auxiliary bishop of Manila Bernardo Cortez, one of the church officials who supervise San Carlos seminary.

The seminary is not the proper venue for Ong’s allegations, Cortez explained.

"The seminary should be brought to its original purpose, for study. The seminars being attended by the seminarians should not be disturbed. These allegations still need to be proven. Let us leave the authorities to look into this. But the seminary is not the proper forum."

The archdiocese of Manila was startled by Ong’s sudden presence there, Cortez said. "We were not informed. We were caught by surprise."

An archdiocese insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the church is not sure what to do with Ong. "The church is not used to this kind of thing. But it is better if he is transferred somewhere else," he said.

Meanwhile, the former spokesman of influential former Manila archbishop Cardinal Jaime Sin issued a statement calling for sobriety.

"We always allow reason to prevail over our feelings. We must choose the welfare of the country above personal interests. We must choose peace, not violence. We must stand by the law and fight anarchy," Bishop of Balanga Socrates Villegas said.

Villegas called on to the opposition to avoid doing the nation any harm in its quarrel with the administration and "allow reason to prevail and not shallow sentimentalism."

"I appeal to our brothers and sisters in the political opposition to use only and always the instruments of peace and justice and truth in pursuing their dreams for the nation. It is not enough to have a good cause. The means to a good cause must also be good. Let us not allow more chaos to prevail. The nation needs leaders ready for dialogue, not more rallies."

Villegas appealed to the Arroyo administration and the opposition to examine their own motives.

"You are both leaders of one nation although standing on opposite positions. What kind of leadership have you given us, the people who have elected you into office? We are tired of the continuous political bickering. When will you start working?"

Villegas also appealed to President Arroyo for urgent reforms. "We want reform, not a revolution. The President must govern from a morally sound foundation and not from political concessions and compromises."

He also called for a fair and transparent probe of the purported wiretapped conversations of Mrs. Arroyo.

"We need an end to the rampant, shameless and disgusting corruption in government. Those who are guilty of receiving payola from jueteng, smuggling and narcotics must be brought to justice, wherever they may be," Villegas continued. "The venue is the court, not the streets and certainly not the media. We want the truth."

Some administration lawmakers called on the Catholic church yesterday "not to allow themselves to be used for politics and instead serve as a calming voice in the midst of the emerging political crisis."

"If the church leadership wants to protect democracy, it should serve as a calming voice in the midst of these destabilization attempts," said Zamboanga del Sur Rep. Isidoro Real Jr. "Our church leaders should remain fair and not allow themselves to be used for partisan politics."

The Catholic Church wields enormous clout in the Philippines. It was instrumental in ousting dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and Mrs. Arroyo’s predecessor, Joseph Estrada, in 2001 following massive corruption allegations.

Estrada is on trial for allegedly running an illegal gambling protection racket and taking bribes from jueteng operators during his aborted presidency.

Resignations Demanded Anew

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. reiterated his call for the President’s resignation as the only way to stave off "another people power and a bloody political upheaval."

He also called for an immediate Senate inquiry into Ong’s revelations.

Pimentel said Ong’s revelations bolstered his call for Mrs. Arroyo to resign, as there was now solid proof of massive electoral fraud in the tapes presented by Ong.

"These taped conversations that detail the schemes to cheat (Poe) by (the President) and Comelec operator Garcillano in the last presidential and vice-presidential elections are the smoking gun that validates the observations that I made, to the same effect, at the congressional canvassing of the said elections," he said.

Pimentel has been calling for the President’s resignation on the grounds that she has lost her credibility and that her moral ascendancy has been eroded by claims of electoral fraud and the jueteng scandals hounding her husband, son and brother-in-law.

He said Vice President Noli De Castro should also resign because he also benefited from the alleged cheating during the elections.

Pimentel said that after the President and Vice President resign, Senate President Franklin Drilon should become acting President and should immediately call for snap elections to fill the vacancies in the top two posts of the land.

"That is the only way, I believe, that we can move the ship of state forward," he said. "Today, the nation’s ship is listless, floating on a sea of uncertainty. It sorely needs a new captain to save it from either dashing itself against the rocks of rebellion or coup d’etat or capsizing in the waves of people power."

He said holding a snap election would conform to the 1987 Constitution, even if it does not conform explicitly to the Charter.

Quoting Article VII Section 8 of the Constitution, Pimentel said that, in case of permanent disability, removal from office or resignation of both the President and Vice President, "the Senate President shall act as President until the replacements shall have been elected and qualified."

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada also called for Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation to "save the country from further turmoil" following Ong’s revelations.

Estrada meanwhile said an Australian company commissioned by opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson to conduct forensic voice identification analysis had verified and declared the taped conversations to be authentic.

Despite the fact that illegally wiretapped conversations are not admissible in court under the Rules of Court, Estrada said the recordings could be used by the opposition as evidence to prove that the late Fernando Poe Jr. won in the May 2004 elections.

He said the tapes were "very incriminating" and would prove to the people that Mrs. Arroyo cheated her way to the presidency. — With Jaime Laude, Pia Lee-Brago, Evelyn Macairan, Aurea Calica, Mike Frialde, Non Alquitran, Perseus Echeminada, Edu Punay, Marvin Sy