‘Proposal for GMA, Noli to step down for snap polls unconstitutional’

The proposal for President Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro to resign to pave the way for holding a snap presidential election is unconstitutional, House Deputy Speaker Simeon Datumanong said yesterday.

“Section 4 of Article 7 of the Constitution clearly provides that the President and Vice President shall be elected by direct vote of the people for six years. They were elected by the people for a six-year mandate that ends on June 30, 2010. That mandate should be respected,” he said.

Datumanong, a former justice secretary, was commenting on the resolution filed by Nueva Ecija Rep. Eduardo Joson IV asking Mrs. Arroyo and De Castro to step down so that new leaders can be elected.

Joson cited the lingering legitimacy issues hounding the President and vice president.

New calls for the resignation of the top two officials and for a snap election are bound to fail, just like in the past, for lack of basis and support, Datumanong said.

“To ask the President and Vice President to step down on the basis of low popularity ratings and unproven cheating charges is most unfair to them,” he said.

He said Mrs. Arroyo has repeatedly declared in the past that she is not after popularity and that she would focus on governance.

He urged the President’s critics not to forget that although opposition candidates clobbered their administration counterparts in the senatorial race in May, most of her allies won in the congressional and local elections.

“Her critics keep on claiming that the May senatorial race was a vote of no confidence on the Arroyo administration, but they conveniently forget the results of the elections in the congressional and local levels,” Mrs. Arroyo’s former justice secretary said.

Mrs. Arroyo has tenaciously held on to power despite calls for her resignation from civilian leaders, disgruntled elements in the military and loyalists of former President Joseph Estrada.

On July 8, 2005, at the height of the “Hello, Garci” scandal, 10 senior Arroyo Cabinet members led by then Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima quit their posts and asked their former Palace boss to resign as well.

Hours later, former President Corazon Aquino, then Senate President Franklin Drilon and the Makati Business Club joined the call for Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation.   – Jess Diaz