Senate Majority Leader Francisco Tatad urged the President yesterday to overhaul the Cabinet and work out a possible power-sharing scheme with the opposition.
Under the scheme, Tatad said Cabinet members who have become "invisible" in times of crisis should be removed from their posts and then allow Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and former President Fidel Ramos to become members of the so-called new "Coalition Cabinet for National Salvation."
The pro-administration senator told a press conference that his plan could calm the media and people in the streets, regain the credibility of government, restore investors’ confidence, reverse the economic downtrend and allow the impeachment process as well as the 2001 elections to proceed undisturbed.
"This seems to me the least painful way out of the crisis," he said.
However, the opposition Lakas-NUCD party rejected Tatad’s proposal.
According to its spokesman former Deputy Speaker Hernando "Nani" Perez, "power sharing will not restore the confidence of the people."
"The only real solution to this crisis of confidence is a change in leadership, for President Estrada to resign," he said in a statement.
Malacañang, meanwhile, denied it had a hand in drafting Tatad’s proposal.
"This is the first time that I’ve heard of it," said Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora.
This new body would be vested with powers to run the day-to-day affairs of the government, with the President adopting its decision as his own, he added.
Tatad said Arroyo could be given the task of running the country’s economic affairs, while Ramos could act as a "roving ambassador" to promote external trade.
Tatad also called on moral and spiritual leaders to do everything to get the opposition and the administration parties to sit down and look for a negotiated end to the crisis.
The crisis started when Mr. Estrada’s long-time friend, Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson, exposed the Chief Executive’s involvement in jueteng.
Singson has charged he personally oversaw payments from illegal gambling operators to Mr. Estrada of more than P400 million over a 21-month period. The President also received P130 million from the province’s tobacco revenues, he said.
The scandal has widened to include allegations of a collection of mansions that Mr. Estrada is accused of holding for his various mistresses.
The House of Representatives is set to consider an impeachment complaint that is viewed as unlikely to succeed, given that Mr. Estrada’s LAMP party controls both chambers of Congress, while the Senate is conducting a separate investigation.
The chairman of the House committee on justice, Rep. Pacifico Fajardo (LAMP, Nueva Ecija), said he would not participate in the impeachment proceedings because he is a third cousin of Arroyo, who is first in line to succeed Mr. Estrada.
Fajardo said he was "trying my best to be impartial" but did not want to be involved because "there might be a conflict of interest."
Fajardo designated Rep. Neptali Gonzalez II (LAMP, Mandaluyong City) to head the committee’s impeachment action, stirring concerns among critics that the matter might soon be thrown out.
Lakas Rep. Oscar Moreno of Misamis Oriental and Rep. Ricardo Silverio (LAMP, Bulacan) have earlier suggested the designation of either Rep. Oscar Rodriguez (LAMP, Pampanga) or Rep. Wigberto Tañada (LP, Quezon) as temporary chairman.
Both Rodriguez and Tañada are human rights lawyers.
Meanwhile, Senate President Pro Tempore Blas Ople asked the President to convene an economic summit to address the country’s financial difficulties.
"It is time that the government harnesses the genius of private sector and the responsible trade union movements to confront the mounting economic crisis and apply their collective will," he said.
In a related development, the opposition Lakas-NUCD party accused Malacañang of launching a well-funded black propaganda campaign against Arroyo and the opposition in a bid to distract the people from the massive evidence of corruption by Mr. Estrada.
"The black propaganda campaign has started, and the administration is now acting like the ousted regime of Ferdinand Marcos in addressing its problems," Perez said.
"As we have seen in 1986, black propaganda and dirty tricks will not work to disprove the moral bankruptcy of the Estrada administration. The evidence of the illegal diversion of the P130-million excise tax and hundreds of millions of jueteng bribe money received by President Estrada is so overwhelming, like the evidence of the ill-gotten wealth of Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies," he said.
In other developments yesterday, militant labor groups they will join the Nov. 4 rally called by Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin.
They said they will absent themselves from their work to join the rally at the EDSA Shrine.
"A stubborn Mafia leader deserves the fury of the people," said KMU chairman Crispin Beltran. – With Liberty Dones, Jess Diaz, Marichu Villanueva, Sandy Araneta, Pia Lee-Brago, Mayen Jaymalin, AP