Loren on Noli taking over as president: He is not a viable alternative
Sen. Loren Legarda has distanced herself from mounting calls for the resignation of President Macapagal-Arroyo over the ZTE-NBN bribery scandal but took a swipe at Vice President Noli de Castro.
"I am not ready to join the calls for the President's resignation," Legarda said in a press conference on Saturday following a meeting with officials of Panay and government agencies regarding the island's fabric industry.
Legarda said there is no "clear and viable alternative" to the President if resigns or if she is ousted from office.
She said she sees no alternative that will bring more jobs in the countryside and settle the problems of hunger and poverty.
When asked by The News Today if she is saying that De Castro, who will assume the presidency if the post is vacated as provided by the Constitution, is not a clear and viable alternative, Legarda said: "He is not. I'm sorry. I don't want to say anything negative. I'm trying to be diplomatic about it."
In the 2004 elections, Legarda ran but lost against De Castro, her fellow broadcaster at the giant television network ABS-CBN.
She filed an electoral protest for alleged fraud but her protest was dismissed by the Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, on January 18 this year for lack of factual and legal basis. The High Court also said she lost her claim on the vice presidency after she was elected senator last May.
The dismissal was affirmed by the Supreme Court on February 19.
Legarda said the Senate must continue its investigation on the ZTE-NBN controversy and come up with recommendations. She said existing laws should be implemented and grafters should be jailed.
She said the Senate should also assess all the evidence presented and the credibility of the witnesses and make sure that it ferrets out the truth instead of engaging in "grandstanding."
Legarda, who said she is with the political opposition, said that instead of calling for the President's resignation, the focus should be on working for "clean and honest elections so that the next President will have a clear mandate of the people." She pointed out that the there will be elections in two years.
"(I've) been going around the country. I don't hear it (calls for the President's resignation) from the (local government units, non-government organizations)... Not yet, at least," Legarda said as government officials, including Antique Gov. Salvacion Zaldivar-Perez, a staunch ally of the President, listened.
The senator made the statement a day after the biggest protest on the ZTE-NBN scandal was held nationwide by multi-sectoral groups.
Legarda who figured prominently during the impeachment trial of ousted former President Joseph Estrada also sang a different tune on the EDSA II People Power uprising.
"At that time we should not have called for Estrada's ouster or resignation... We should have let him finished his term..." she said. "Not that i regret it. Maybe I do."
Legarda said that if Estrada who was convicted of plunder by the Sandiganbayan, had finished his term until 2004, "we would not have this chaos now."
Legarda was dubbed the "Crying Lady" in January 2001 during Estrada's impeachment trial after she was shown on television openly crying while former Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta was dancing after then Estrada-allied senators refused to open the so-called second envelope believed to be containing evidence against Estrada. The senators' refusal to open the envelope triggered a walkout of prosecutors which sparked widespread protests leading to Estrada's ouster.