|
Break silence, Arroyo told
Manila, 14 June 2005 — BISHOP Teodoro Bacani has joined other calls gauging President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo to come out in the open and speak on her alleged wire-tapped conversation with Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Commissioner Virgilio Garcillinao.
Bishop Bacani insisted that President Arroyo should be straightforward in claiming that she is the legitimate president of the republic and must give up her post if she really had orchestrated fraud during the 2004 presidential elections.
"Kung talagang nandaya siya, she has a moral obligation to give up her post," Bacani said. "However, if she claimed that she did not cheat, she must talk it out."
Arroyo has not made even just a single statement about the controversial audio tape after Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye revealed to the public of its existence few days ago which he later reversed.
Meanwhile, Bishops Bacani and Sok Villegas also denied early rumors that ISAFP agent Vidal Doble was held against his will at the San Carlos Seminary.
In another development, whistleblower former National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Atty. Samuel Ong has also left the San Carlos Seminary late last night.
Ong was reportedly accompanied by Bishops Bernardo Cortez, Villegas and Fr. Anton Pascual to ensure his transfer to still unnamed site for security purposes.
Ong took safe haven in the seminary June 10 after claiming he had in his possession the "mother of all tapes" that would allegedly attest President Arroyo had cheated in the said national elections.
The Catholic Church made it clear that it had granted him refuge out of "pastoral solitude" but claimed that doing so did not necessarily mean it accepted his accusations. (Roy Q. Lagarde)
|
