Celebrations at EDSA

philstar.com

Ousted President Joseph Estrada says “blatant and excessive” corruption in government had eroded the gains of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution.

Speaking before the Rotary Club of Quezon City at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan, Estrada admonished President Arroyo for saying that she only learned of alleged anomalies in the ZTE deal the night before she flew to China to witness the signing of the contract.

“I am calling on the Arroyo administration to abandon the politics of corruption, the politics of greed and the politics of lies and deception,” he said.

“On hindsight, I am proud to say that my administration was not once marred with cover-ups. No contract initiated during my administration was the subject of any corruption issue, neither was any member of my cabinet charged with corruption.

“Her (Arroyo’s) statement is an outright lie. Several months ago, no less than National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director general Romulo Neri informed her (Mrs. Arroyo) that he had been offered a P200-million bribe to approve the deal.

“ I can tell you with a straight face that in my entire public service career, I have never lied to the people. In fact, I have been criticized for being too frank and candid.”

Estrada said the administration must observe transparency in government.

“EDSA II has claimed so many victims, from the sanctity of our electoral processes to the repeated transgression of our Constitution and the many cases of extra judicial killings,” he said.

“It has brought wide scale and massive corruption that identifies our country as among the most corrupt in the world.”