Thousands of people from various political stripes joined an interfaith rally Feb. 29 at the corner of Ayala Avenue and Paseo de Roxas in Makati City’s business district, calling on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign from office over the controversial National Broadband Network (NBN) deal.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 5, March 2-8, 2008

Thousands of people from various political stripes joined an interfaith rally Feb. 29 at the corner of Ayala Avenue and Paseo de Roxas in Makati City’s business district, calling on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign from office over the controversial National Broadband Network (NBN) deal. Joining forces with religious groups, cause-oriented organizations, urban poor communities, students, professionals and businessmen were NBN witnesses Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada and Jose “Joey” de Venecia III (son of ousted House Speaker Jose de Venecia) and former Presidents Corazon Aquino and Joseph “Erap” Estrada.

In a scene reminiscent of the large protests against the Marcos regime in the early 1980s and against the Estrada administration in 1999-2000, confetti rained on the protesters from the buildings along Ayala Avenue as they marched to the corner of Paseo de Roxas, where a stage was installed a short distance away from the statue of the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.

Rally organizers, who included Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay, gave an estimate of 80,000-85,000 for what was visibly the biggest rally against the Arroyo administration since 2001 – when she was catapulted to power through a popular uprising that ousted then President Joseph Estrada. Police estimated the crowd size at 15,000-18,000.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) secretary-general Renato Reyes Jr. called the Feb. 29 rally “the strongest rejection yet of the Arroyo regime.”

Lozada thanked the ralliers for what he described as their concern for the rights of those who had fallen prey to corruption. “That you are here tonight means that you value the rights of the victims of corruption more than the rights of its perpetrators,” he said, to which the audience responded with wild applause.

Lozada, who was a technical consultant on the NBN deal between the Philippine government and China’s ZTE Corp., testified at recent Senate investigations on the controversial contract – confirming and adding detail to earlier allegations by the younger De Venecia.

The NBN project is a $329-million contract that aims to connect government agencies throughout the Philippines through the Internet.

Lozada revealed in Senate investigations that the NBN deal was overpriced by $130 million, and that it was “standard practice for government contracts” to be overpriced by 20 percent.

He also disclosed that presidential spouse Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo was involved in backchannel negotiations on the NBN deal. He confirmed the involvement of former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos in the contract, as well as his attempt to bribe Romulo Neri – who was director-general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) during negotiations on the project.

His revelations, together with previous attempts to silence him like his abduction allegedly by elements from the Presidential Security Group (PSG) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) with the assistance of airport security men upon his arrival from Hong Kong early last month, provoked public outrage and revived calls for Arroyo to resign from office.

Addressing the crowd, the younger De Venecia – who heads Amsterdam Holdings, Inc., which is one of the losing bidders in the NBN deal – repeatedly shouted, “Back off, GMA!” – referring to a supposed order to him by the presidential spouse to “back off” from the biddings on the NBN contract. This drew loud cheers from the crowd.

Aquino appealed to the crowd to unite and continue praying for unity and truth.

“Let’s continue praying,” she said. “We know what can help us in these times. I thought I’m finished with all this because I’m old. But the call of the times is for us to be unified to end this deception and know the truth.”

After her, Estrada amused the crowd with reference to himself as an “under-staying” President and Arroyo as an “overstaying” one.

It was a rare gathering of previously opposing groups and personalities exemplified by Aquino and Estrada sharing the stage. Aquino was one of those who headed the historic People Power II uprising, which ousted Estrada in 2001.

The rally ended before 9 p.m. and organizers announced that this would not be the last. Reyes announced that there would be bigger rallies in the next few weeks. (Bulatlat.com)