5 things in the next 7 days for GMA

Former government officials “outraged” by the “disturbing glimpses of the truth about alleged corruption that attended the NBN-ZTE deal” will announce this morning five things that they think President Arroyo must do in the next seven days to address the growing controversy on the botched broadband project.

In a statement titled Government Should Serve the Truth, the group—known as La Salle 60—called on President Arroyo “to cooperate fully” with the ongoing Senate investigation and do the following:

1. To allow Romulo Neri—chair of the National Economic and Development Authority when the project was approved—“to resume his testimony before the Senate investigation without any restrictions or limitations.”
2. To “order the release and delivery to the Senate of all public records pertaining to the NBN-ZTE deal, starting with the minutes of the NEDA Board meetings on the project”
3. To suspend Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Leandro Mendoza and Assistant Secretary Lorenzo Formoso. DOTC was the lead agency for the broadband project.
4. To “suspend environment Secretary Lito Atienza, PNP Director General Avelino Razon, Deputy Executive Secretary Manuel Gaite, Deputy NAIA Chief Angel Atutubo, Senior Supt. Paul Mascarinas and all those allegedly involved in the attempt to prevent Senate witness Jun Lozada from testifying,” and
5. To “order a halt on any further attempts by such agencies as the DOJ, DENR, NBI and BIR to harass Senate witness Jun Lozada and other witnesses”

“Today we see how the institutions of government are being manipulated, weakened, and corrupted,” they said in the statement. “The President must demonstrate her commitment to the truth through these actions within one week as more and more of our people make their judgment.”

They said the President Arroyo must heed their call of action or she will be “condemned as complicit with, and in fact, as being at the center of, the lies surrounding the NBN-ZTE deal.”

“The following actions… can reasonably be done within one week,” they said.

Next step

While the group has not joined calls for President Arroyo’s resignation, former education Secretary Butch Abad earlier warned that “the call for resignation is most likely our next step…. if there will be no meaningful and satisfactory response from her.”

Abad is a member of the Hyatt 10, which bolted the Arroyo administration in 2005 at the height of the ‘Hello, Garci’ controversy. “Once there is a [united] call for resignation, things will move faster,” he said.

The demand letter was drafted on Saturday, a day after a major protest rally that called for the investigation of the botched broadband deal. It was the biggest anti-GMA rally so far.

The said statement is the second demand letter that the group has issued since the broadband deal controversy. In February, they circulated the statement Time To Go, which called on incumbent government officials to resign their positions.

It was then that the group earned its name, La Salle 60, because of the 60 original signatories to the statement. The statement was circulated after a mass for Senate key witness Rodolfo Noel “Jun” Lozada in La Salle Greenhlls. The group has since grown to about 90.

The group has also been preparing for the possibility of Vice President Noli De Castro succeeding President Arroyo. It created several clusters to address various issues of governance. Among the reforms they have proposed are scrapping the legislators’ pork barrel and the privatization of Pagcor.

“People want to make sure that [in case President Arroyo steps down] it’s not just the change of people. There should be action that needs to be pursued after this administration,” said Teresita “Ging” Deles, former secretary of the peace process.