Defensor: GMA shouldn’t have made ‘I am sorry’ speech

President Arroyo should not have made her "I am sorry" speech last year as she had nothing to apologize for in the first place; rather, she was manipulated by former Cabinet officials who wanted to oust her, presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor said yesterday.

Defensor made the comment exactly a year after the President apologized to the nation for her "lapse in judgment" in speaking with an election official, whom the opposition believes to be former Commission on Elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.

"It’s sad because those who pushed her to do it (apologize) were the same ones who betrayed the President," Defensor said, referring to 10 former members of Mrs. Arroyo’s economic team who became known as the "Hyatt 10."

"It seems that they created the situation to push somebody else to become president or to take over the government," he said.

Mrs. Arroyo apologized after alleged wiretapped conversations between her and Garcillano became public, triggering the so-called "Hello, Garci" scandal. The controversy became the basis of the first impeachment bid against her on alleged electoral fraud, which was later junked.

Defensor said of all the wrong things that happened, "the biggest mistake" was the President apologizing when there was nothing to apologize for.

He said there was no authentication of the recording, even by the House committee on public information, which investigated the alleged wiretapping incident.

The recordings should not have been aired in the first place as they had been illegally obtained, he said.

Defensor said he was surprised that days before the President issued her apology, the members of the Hyatt 10 were already talking about asking her to say sorry and send her controversial relatives on exile.

He said there was a major quarrel within the Cabinet, with Defensor strongly opposing any move to give credence to the recordings. He pointed out that in other countries, an investigation would have been made to determine whether the tapes were authentic, and if so, who was responsible for making the recordings.

The Hyatt 10 later held a separate meeting with Mrs. Arroyo and convinced her to apologize to make it appear that she was admitting to electoral fraud, Defensor said.

"It was too much for me to see these people talking about sending her relatives on exile as if they are talking about some appointees. I asked them, why are they getting personal? I learned their real motives later when they resigned and demanded the resignation of the President," he said.

Defensor recalled that he confronted former social welfare secretary Corazon Soliman, a member of the Hyatt 10, to ask her why she was talking about cheating when both of them were heavily involved in the 2004 presidential campaign and there was no evidence of such occurrence.

Instead, Soliman asked him to join them in resigning to give Mrs. Arroyo a free hand to reorganize the Cabinet and show the people that she was serious about cleaning up the government.

However, he said the intention of the Hyatt 10 was to make it appear that the President was being abandoned and had lost the confidence of her Cabinet.

The moniker came from the name of the hotel where the group announced their resignation.

Opposition legislators attempted to impeach Mrs. Arroyo last year over charges that she cheated to win the May 2004 elections and over alleged corruption.

She has admitted having an inappropriate phone conversation with an unidentified election official before Congress could declare the winner. She denies rigging the poll outcome, however.

However, the opposition failed to reach the required one-third of the 230-seat House to impeach Mrs. Arroyo and send the complaint to the Senate for trial.

Mrs. Arroyo has been locked in a protracted battle with the opposition since.

The opposition is hoping to win greater support this time from legislators who may be disenchanted with Mrs. Arroyo after she declared a week-long state of emergency in February over an alleged coup plot by military rebels and communist guerrillas.