CIBAC Rep. Joel Villanueva said the people should not allow themselves to be thrown into Arroyo’s direction and focus on the 2010 elections instead.

"The people around her (Arroyo) lead everybody in confusion, her aim is to confuse and to disrupt the political landscape – let us all stop letting her do that," he said.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Cruz yesterday said President Arroyo’s political intentions cannot remain hidden from the public with her continued silence as it is quite obvious that she is bent on "going yet staying."

"Promises are winds. Dreams of drawings. These appear to be the living principles and applied norms of the present government of Malacañang, by Malacañang, for Malacañang," the former CBCP president said. 

In an interview in Japan, Arroyo on Saturday reiterated her government’s commitment to push through with the 2010 local and national polls.

She also said the move to amend the Constitution is not an effort to stop the holding of the elections.

Arroyo, however, was mum on her political plans.

Cruz noted empty promises have been a regular fixture in Arroyo’s statements.

"No Charter Change. No term extension under any guise and pretense. Honest, orderly, peaceful and credible May 2010 automated elections. Any taker of such promises? Any dreamer of such dreams?" Cruz said.

Cruz said the President’s desire to stay in power "was further strengthened by the passage of the House Resolution 1109 by her allies in the House of Representatives earlier in the month, which seeks to convene Congress into a Senate-less Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass)."

"The ‘going yet staying’ paradox, in other words, is such the detestable and thereby disturbing case when someone – like a distinctly persona non grata before the general public – is rightfully expected to leave, eagerly anticipated to depart and disappear. The same character however insists in staying, persists in remaining and decided in holding on," Cruz said.

Cruz said Arroyo is now open to all options for the law to allow her continued stay, including the declaration of an emergency rule and Charter Change.

"This is when all options are open – right or wrong, legal or illegal – such that any and all human and financial means are used to attempt in justifying an evil end," Cruz said.

Political adviser Gabriel Claudio said it is "unproductive" for the people to continue to speculate on whether President Arroyo would run for Congress in 2010 and if she needs to resign should she decide to run next year.

Claudio added that Comelec chairman Jose Melo was merely stating a "legal fact" when he said Arroyo does not need to quit her post to seek an elective position.

"Chairman Melo is just stating a legal fact and position without partisan judgment."

"While it is clear that the President is not compelled by law to resign if she runs for another position in 2010. Nobody knows – probably with the exception of her immediate family – if she will or she won’t," Claudio said.

Speaker Prospero Nograles appealed to critics to respect the President’s privacy.

"Let’s not needle her on this. That’s what right to privacy means even if one is president of the Republic. Please let her be," he said.

CIBAC Rep. Joel Villanueva said the people should not allow themselves to be thrown into Arroyo’s direction and focus on the 2010 elections instead.

"The people around her (Arroyo) lead everybody in confusion, her aim is to confuse and to disrupt the political landscape – let us all stop letting her do that," he said.

Rep. Edno Joson (Ind., Nueva Ecija) said when Arroyo says that they are not out to scrap the elections, "we should expect that the same frogs that poison our democracy will try to cling to power in Malacañang and commit plunder forever."

Source: Malaya by BY GERARD NAVAL with Jocelyn Montemayor and Wendell Vigilia, June 22, 2009