Roxas to PGMA: "Save the Republic"

Davao City – Senator Mar Roxas on Wednesday made a call to the President to “save the Republic,” in light of controversies arising from the anomalous government contract with ZTE Corp. for a National Broadband Network.

At the sidelines of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines’ Mindanao Island Cluster Congress, Roxas outlined to reporters his proposed steps that the President could take relative to controversies hounding her administration.

“My recommendation to the President would be to save the Republic, to save the instutution of the Presidency, to save our country from Constitutional crisis, by doing the following:

“First, to lift EO 464; Second, to instruct all her cabinet officials and police officials to attend all investigations not just the Senate’s but also the Department of Justice and the Ombudsman, so they can tell everybody kung ano talaga ang nangyari rito;

“Third, to suspend such officials who do not follow this; Fourth, to instruct the National Economic and Development Authority to release to the Senate the all documents relative to the NEDA hearings on the ZTE contract.”

Asked by reporters to describe the country at present, Roxas, president of the Liberal Party, said it is “broken.” “Our country is broken. The institutions have low credibility. The executive itself has low respect from the people. And we need to fix this. Ang ating mga kababayan, yung tiwala nila sa ating pamahalaan, sa ating mag opisyales ay mababang-mababa na o kaya wala na,” he said.

“Kaya magagamot lamang natin ito, aayos lamang ang ating bansa kung maibalik natin ang tiwala ng ating mga kababayan sa kanilang pamahalaan sa pamamagitan ng tuwid at tapat na pang-gogobyerno,” he stressed.

Roxas, who is Co-Chairman of the Joint Senate Panel investigating the botched ZTE-NBN deal, said the Senate will continue on with its hearing in the interest of the truth, despite a chorus from the Palace calling for its abortion. He also said that former NEDA Director General Romulo Neri is key to this search for truth.

“Neri is a very important important component in the story. Siya mismo ang nagsabi sa Pangulo na may bribe attempt sa kanya. At kung anuman ang sinagot sa kanya ng Pangulo ay siya rin ang makakapagsabi niyan,” he said.

“What we want to know is first, what were the anomalies here, who perpetuated them and cases should be filed against them. Second, how can we amend our procurement laws para hindi na maulit itong gawain na ito,” he stressed.