Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. has asked President Arroyo to “walk her talk” by answering accusations of graft and election fraud against her directly instead of telling her critics to shut up and wait for her term to finish in 2010.
“That is what’s wrong. She cannot directly answer the accusations. She should not change the topic. The question is what is her explanation to ZTE deal and Cyber Education program,” Villar said. “These are what (the President) has to answer, 2010 is a separate issue.”
Villar was referring to the aborted $329-million national broadband network deal with ZTE Corp. of China and the cyber education project of the Department of Education.
“There are really many anomalies,” he said. “If this is the case, can people simply keep quiet?”
The Senate president also said Mrs. Arroyo has lost her credibility in election issues because she reneged on her promise not to run for president in the 2004 elections.
“The problem was that when she said she was not running in 2004, she changed her mind and ran. So there are people who cannot wait,” Villar said.
“However, it does not mean that these people only wanted to run in 2010. I think it is wrong for the President to say or blame the people for criticizing her because they want to run,” he pointed out. – Christina Mendez