At a press conference yesterday, Senate President Franklin Drilon along with Senators Anna Dominique Coseteng and Rodolfo Biazon announced they were quitting the ruling Lapian ng Masang Pilipino (LAMP) coalition headed by the President.
At about the same time, Speaker Manuel Villar Jr. led 45 pro-administration congressmen in signing the impeachment case initiated by the opposition bloc in the LAMP-dominated House of Representatives. The move also signified their formal defection from LAMP which consists of the President’s Partido ng Masang Pilipino, the Nationalist People’s Coalition, the Lapian ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) and the Pilipino Democratic Party.
Drilon urged Mr. Estrada to heed the popular clamor for his resignation to end the rapidly growing political crisis triggered by corruption charges, and prevent a further deterioration of the Philippine economy.
"We should spare the Filipino people needless suffering," Drilon said.
Drilon, Coseteng and Biazon declared that their re-signation from LAMP was necessary so they could act impartially on the impeachment case when it reaches the Senate.
The three senators also said the only solution to the political and economic crisis now threatening to paralyze the country is for Mr. Estrada to resign or allow the impeachment proceedings to take its due course.
Drilon said the presidential resignation is the political solution to the economic crisis, adding that he was prepared to accept any consequences of his action, including giving up the Senate presidency.
Drilon said he will call for an urgent caucus to tackle the ongoing Senate Blue Ribbon Committee probe of the jueteng bribery scandal involving the President, as well as plot their course of action regarding the impeachment bid.
The three senators also said they would join the mammoth prayer rally set this afternoon at the EDSA Shrine.
Biazon said he would call for a caucus of the LDP and propose that the call for the President’s resignation be adopted as an official party stand. "If the party will not adopt my proposal, then I will take a leave of absence and become independent," he said.
He added that the presidential resignation is a better option than civil disobedience or anarchy.
"The call for civil disobedience makes me tremble," Biazon said.
He noted that Mr. Estrada has lost the ability to lead the country, and that drastic moves must be taken to save the economy from total collapse.
For her part, Coseteng said her decision to severe political ties with Mr. Estrada hurts because the President is a close friend. "But I have to make the decision for the sake of the country... I think the President understands me," she said.
Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. was the first LAMP member in the Senate to announce his defection from the coalition.
Other pro-administration senators are Senate President Pro Tempore Blas Ople, Senate Majority Leader Francisco Tatad, John Osmeña, Juan Ponce Enrile, Robert Jaworski, Ramon Revilla, Vicente "Tito" Sotto III, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Gregorio Honasan.
Ople said the resignations hitting LAMP will serve as a cleansing process of the ruling party.
"Matira and matibay (It’s survival of the fittest)," Ople said.
"All we ask for is fairness. He (Mr. Estrada) is hoping that he will have a chance to explain to the people," Zamora said.
He added that the Chief Executive was hurt by the resignation of Mar Roxas II as trade and industry secretary last Thursday. "He always thought of him as his son. It was shocking because up to the day before, he (Roxas) was still with the President at the Palace with the rest of the Cabinet," Zamora said.
Meanwhile, more pro-administration congressmen were expected to sign the impeachment document but failed to make it to Manila due to a typhoon that battered Luzon yesterday.
Presidential Adviser for Political Affairs and concurrent chief of the Philippine Tourism Authority Lito Banayo has also handed in his resignation letter.
Also on Thursday, Representatives Neptali "Boyet" Gonzalez II of Mandaluyong City and Ralph Recto of Batangas also separately announced their departure from LAMP and vowed to join tomorrow’s multi-sectoral prayer rally at the EDSA Shrine to press the President’s resignation.
Recto’s wife, popular movie actress and Lipa City Mayor Vilma Santos also declared she is deserting the President, who is a former movie actor.
Roxas admitted earlier that the Estrada government has sprung leaks and was taking in water.
He became the second Cabinet member to abandon the 29-month-old Estrada administration as an offshoot of the accusations aired by erstwhile ally Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson that Mr. Estrada pocketed more than P400 million in bribes from illegal gambling operators. Last Oct. 12, Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo resigned as secretary of social welfare and development.
Gonzalez said he may also lose his post as deputy majority leader and vice chairman of the House committee on justice which would handle the impeachment resolution against the President.
All five senior economic advisers of Mr. Estrada were likewise expected to declare they were quitting the Economic Coordinating Council (ECC), dealing a another serious blow to government efforts to turn around the floundering economy.
For his part, Villar said the crisis has "already escalated to the point of threatening paralysis in government and the collapse of the economy."
"We cannot allow this to happen," he stressed.
Villar said a endorsement of the impeachment raps by a clear majority of the House members would automatically send the case to the Senate for trial.
"We are aiming for a majority so that there will be no technicalities and hitches, and we are confident of getting a majority," said House Minority Leader Feliciano Belmonte Jr. (Lakas-NUCD, Quezon City).
He said they are expecting at least 110 congressmen to sign the impeachment measure.
Coseteng and Biazon also echoed the calls for the President to step down.
"The desertions are expected to snowball further, since Philippine party memberships are often based on alliances to people in power rather than ideology," the Associated Press (AP) said.
Former Speaker Jose de Venecia indicated that the spate of resignations could mean that the collapse of the Estrada leadership was almost inevitable.
"I think for all intents and purposes, he (Mr. Estrada is finished)," De Venecia said.
He urged the President to form a multi-sectoral transition government that would set the stage for his resignation and the eventual take over of his constitutional successor, Arroyo.
De Venecia said an overwhelming support to the impeachment bid at the House would exert tremendous political and psychological pressure on the senators.
Under the Constitution, two-thirds or 16 of the 24 senators must vote for the impeachment to compel the President to step down.
The House is scheduled to start deliberations on the impeachment case on Monday.
In Davao City, the Mindanao Business Council (MBC), an umbrella organization of the chambers of commerce and industry in the South, joined the mounting call for the President to relinquish his post to save the economy.
This developed as banana magnate Jesus Ayala quit his post as private sector representative to the Mindanao Coordinating Council (MCC) created by Mr. Estrada last July to oversee the rehabilitation of areas ravaged by the armed conflict in Mindanao.
MBC president Joji Ilagan-Bian said Mr. Estrada should consider the economic crisis was due to the President’s lack of leadership.
In resigning, Ayala said the MCC has lost its relevance in view of the economic debacle. - With Edith Regalado, AP, AFP reports