CLARK FREEPORT -Presidential uncle Philipine Olympic Commission (POC) President Jose “Peping” Cojuangco said yesterday he plans o accept before Christmas an invitation to attend a meeting with the National Transformation Council (NTC), a group alling for the resignation of Pres. Aquino.
In a telephone interview with Punto, Cojuangco said he was interested in the eforms being advocated by the NTC, even as he expressed disappointment over statistics showing that about 20 percent of Filipino families are hun-gry. Asked whether he supported the call of the NTC in Lipa City for his nephew Pres. Aquino to resign, Cojuangco eclined to comment, but expressed ntent to attend “before Christmas” a meeting of the NTC to which he was invited.
He denied published reports that he would be in this freeport today to announce his support for NTC declarations, including one that called for the President to “relinquish his post.” But Cojuangco tressed that “There is no biding time or people who are going hungry.
There is no meaning to eports of economic rowth if people are hungry.” Cojuangco said he is supportive of the reforms NTC has been espousing, saying “we hould all be supporting the reforms” adding that “otherwise, I don’t know where this country would head to.” e also lamented the lack of support for the agriculture ector. “We are an agricultural country and there should e no room for unger for Filipinos because of this.
Other countries learned from us,” he noted Tingting Cojuangco’s wife, former Tarlac Gov. Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco said in a telephone interview she herselfhas been a member of the NTC hich was founded by Catholic leaders in Cebu way back in 2012. Mrs. Cojuangco said her husband is supportive of he reforms espoused by the NTC, as she cited the need for truthfulness in the government amid the scandal on the residential Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
“I have just arrived from Davao City where I talked about the federal system of government, because the presidential system doesn’t work for us,” she said. She could not provide ore details on her husband’s plan to fully support the NTC as she had to attend a board meeting.
A source close to the Cojuangco couple, speakin on condition that he remain anonymous, said that since last August, Catholic church eaders have been inviting Cojuangco to join the NTC’s call for the President to leave his post and pave the way for a transition overnment.“He (Cojuangco) is disgruntled with the group of PNoy (Pres. Aquino),
” the source said, as he amed PNP Director General Alan Purisima, Senate Pres. Franklin Drilon, Interior and Local Governments Sec. Mar Roxas, among other leaders of the Aquino administration. he source also said Cojuangco would even go for another People’s Power revolution similar to that which happened in 1986 that toppled the Marcos dictatorship and installed his ister Corazon “Cory” Aquino to the presidency. “It must be backed by the military or else it will not succeed,” he added.
The source stressed, however, that Cojuangco is also not supportive of Vice Pres. Jejomar Binay who has been ragged into various controversies by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee. “A transition roup with military backing is eyed,” he said. Arguelles Last August, the NTC in Lipa City, headed by Archbishop Ramon Arquelles, issued a eclaration saying that
“far from preserving and defendingthe constitution, as he swore to do when he assumed office, the incumbent President Benigno Simeon Aquino has subverted and violated it by corrupting Congress, intimidating the judiciary, taking over the treasury, manipulating the automated voting system, and perverting the constitutional impeachment process.”
It also said the President has also damaged the moral fabric of Philippine Society by bribing embers of Congress not only to impeach and remove a sitting Supreme Court hief Justice but also to enact a law hich disrespects the right to life of human being at the earliest and most vulnerable stages of their lives, in defiance not only of the constitution but above all of the moral law, the customs, culture, and consciences of Filipinos.”
“We further declare that we ave lost all trust and confidence in President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, and we call upon him o immediately relinquish his position,” the resolution added. The resolution called upon he NTC to “to assume the rgent and necessary task of estoring our damaged political institutions to their original status and form before we egin o consider electing a new government under normal political conditions.”
Vidal Last Oct. 1 in Cebu City, Cardinal icardo Vidal, in his address during the Second National Transformation Council Assembly, said “the political ysfunctions we are witnessing today are mere symptoms of a more profound moral and spiritual crisis. Our task, and the task of the National Transformation Council is to address not merely these symptoms but the roots of the crisis.”
