Save the Nation

30 October 2000 - Over the last several weeks, serious allegations and scandalous revelations about the President’s involvement in receiving a share of proceeds from illegal gambling as well as a kickback from tobacco excise taxes have created a grave crisis of confidence in the President’s leadership.

We have watched with growing concern the continuing validation of the allegations, first by Senators who admitted to taking funds and lately by the disclosure of the Land Bank of the Philippines of highly irregular transfers of funds directly related to the tobacco excise taxes allocated for a project in Ilocos Sur.

While the President has stated that he will present a defense and claims that he has been tried in public without due process, he has not yet taken advantage of the numerous opportunities presented before him to clear his name. Aside from general denials, he has not made a specific defense on the charges leveled against him even as they are validated by others.

The public, as is their right, is judging the President daily. For him to remain silent is to erode further any confidence left in his leadership and integrity. Instead, the President has chosen to divide the people by his cynical use of the poor to prop up his regime. We deplore this attempt to divide the nation by pitting one sector against the other and his failure to understand that popularity alone does not translate to confidence in his leadership.

As all this unfolds, we are gravely concerned with the toll that this crisis of confidence is taking on the economy and the lives of people. This controversy, along with a string of other controversies dating back to the early period of his administration, has helped cause our peso to depreciate sharply by 10% and the stock market to drop 6% in the last three weeks and investments to decline. Given the low confidence levels accorded the Philippines by both domestic and international investors as well as by multilateral agencies and international bond-rating institutions, we foresee continued economic hardship for our people as long as this crisis of leadership continues. The heaviest penalty will be paid by the poor and the jobless – as more businesses close, layoffs rise, prices for basic commodities increase, and the number of new jobs tapers.

Given this crisis of leadership and governance and the loss of confidence in the administration, we call on the President to make the supreme sacrifice for the country and resign.

Any failure to resolve this crisis immediately will only lead to further economic deterioration in the country which will lead to greater suffering by millions of Filipinos.

BISHOPS-BUSINESSMEN’S CONFERENCE (BBC)
CEBU BUSINESS CLUB (CBC)
FINANCIAL EXECUTIVES INSTITUTE OF THE PHILIPPINES (FINEX)
FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC FREEDOM (FEF)
ILOILO BUSINESS CLUB (IBC)
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOUNDATION OF THE PHILIPPINES (ITFP)
INVESTMENT HOUSES ASSOCIATION OF THE PHILIPPINES (IHAP)
MAKATI BUSINESS CLUB (MBC)
MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION OF THE PHILIPPINES (MAP)
MUSLIM BUSINESS FORUM (MBF)
PHILIPPINE COMPUTER SOCIETY (PCS)
PHILIPPINE MARKETING ASSOCIATION (PMA)