Guingona: Generation gap forced me to quit DFA post

A "generation gap" with President Arroyo prompted Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. to quit the Cabinet last month.

Guingona, 75, resigned as foreign secretary after expressing reservations over the dispatch of 1,000 US soldiers to the Philippines to help Manila crush Islamic militants.

He remains as vice president and the 55-year-old Mrs. Arroyo’s constitutional successor until the May 2004 presidential election. He would not say if he would run against her.

In his first news conference since quitting, Guingona recalled Thursday that he had also worked for Mrs. Arroyo’s father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, in the early 1960s.

"We were of the same generation. I could easily joke with him, tell him he is wrong," he said. "He could do the same to me and we would come out of a problem laughing."

With the daughter, "we respect each other. I respect her, I think she respects me. But because of the generation gap — I am more careful."

He said the government had a duty to discipline "black sheep," such as the Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerrillas.

"For no matter how bad the Filipino was, he should not be shot by foreigners."

Asked if the Philippines was now a better place to live in, Guingona said: "It’s a situation where we could improve a lot."

"The Philippines lost a lot of opportunities to improve," after the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was toppled in 1986, he said.

"I don’t want to blame the government" for widespread poverty that is fueling a communist insurgency, he said, citing budget constraints.

But Manila has to "make judicial reforms a reality" to curb corruption. - AFP