‘Gonzales release won’t settle row’

The release of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales from Senate custody is not an assurance that the rift between the Palace and the Senate will finally be settled, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said yesterday.

Pimentel said there is a need for President Arroyo to face the consequences and answer questions raised by the anomalies that are hounding her administration.

The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee headed by Sen. Joker Arroyo ruled last week that Gonzales should be released from Senate custody for humanitarian reasons. Gonzales was confined at the Philippine Heart Center on Sept. 21.

Asked to comment on Gonzales’ release, Pimentel said it won’t be easy to "forgive and forget."

"I hope it would be, but it’s not. I doubt very much if it’s as easy as that, because the problem is not the rift," he said. "The problem is the cause of the rift. Until the cause of the rift is addressed, like the

anomalies in the government — like the fertilizer fund scam and the burning of DBM (the Department of Budget and Management) and many other scandals — the rift will continue."

Pimentel said the President should show sincerity in reforming her administration rather that espousing a unity government, which was criticized by both administration and opposition senators.

"It’s not as (if) we’re easing up on the rift so that there will be no more problems between the Senate and Palace," he added. "That is not the solution."

"Talking is all right, but make sure that there is sincerity — and that has yet to be shown by (the President)," Pimentel said.

He added that Mrs. Arroyo was "dreaming," when she called for the creation of a unity government, under which those who opposed the President will be offered Cabinet and other government posts to give them a chance to work with the Arroyo administration on programs and reforms.

"We won’t accept the offer because we only wanted to be in power," he said. "We want a stop in the anomalies in the government — and then we will shut up."

"What we want to see is for the public to know the roots of the problem, the lack of morality and the fraud in the past elections," Pimentel said.

"If there are solutions, then the government will not hear any more attacks from us," he added.

Meanwhile, the Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP), Gonzales’ political party, said the national security adviser’s release from Senate custody will not deter its moves to seek the abolition of the Senate.

"Certainly, there can be no closure to the Gonzales case because the Senate has failed to answer or submit documents vital to the resolution of the very sensitive and far-reaching constitutional issues involved," PDSP spokesman Jose Ricafrente said.

"PDSP will continue to question the validity of Senate investigations in aid of legislation until the Senate has proven that they have duly published the committee rules of the 13th Congress as required by the Constitution," Ricafrente said.

"Our research has shown that, since July 2004 up to the present, the Senate passed only four laws to the tune of P4 billion," he added.

"Since the founding of PDSP, we have been calling for a unicameral system," he said. "But it was in the Gonzales episode that we clearly saw the excesses of the Senate in the abusive exercise of its power."

PDSP will launch a week-long protest in shopping malls in key cities nationwide to seek support and promote public consciousness on their advocacy for the abolition of the Senate.