By CARMELA FONBUENA

abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak

After President Arroyo snubbed the demand letter they issued last week that called on her to do five specific things, former senior government officials (FSGO) will issued a stronger statement against her Thursday. It, however, still fell short of calling for her resignation.

In a statement, The People Must Remind the President of Her Obligation to Public Trust-- a draft copy of which was obtained by abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak -- the FSGO said they find President Arroyo to be "complicit with and, in fact, at the center of, the corruption and cover up of the NBN-ZTE deal" because of her uncooperative stance towards the ongoing Senate investigation on the botched broadband deal with Chinese company ZTE Corp.

"We express our loss of confidence in her," the group said . The former government officials, more popularly known as La Salle 60, consists of about 90 former Cabinet members. They earned their name after the 60 original signatories in the group’s first statement calling for incumbent Cabinet members to resign.

Among these group’s members are the Hyatt 10 or Mrs. Arroyo’s Cabinet members who resigned at the height of the "Hello, Garci" scandal as well as Cabinet officials of past presidents, from Ferdinand Marcos to Joseph Estrada.

While they are advocates of reform, it is unclear what the group’s end goal is. They are currently broken into clusters that are studying reform proposals for the next administration.

"She (President Arroyo) must act to help bring out the full truth about this deal if her hands are truly clean. The Arroyo Presidency must shelter the truth or it will be judged as a fortress for lies," the FSGO said, lamenting the way "the President’s spokespersons were summarily dismissing these demands. Later her advisers even criticized and threatened us for making these demands."

"We conclude that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo refuses to serve the people's demand for truth about a matter of great public interest. We see in this refusal, despite ample chances and many sound reasons, a clear basis for our people to find her complicit with and, in fact, at the center of, the corruption and cover up of the NBN-ZTE deal," they said.

Irresponsible

Malacañang, meanwhile, branded as the FSGO's statement "irresponsible and sweeping."

In a text message sent to ABS-CBN News Thursday night, Palace deputy spokesman Lorelei Fajardo said, "It is easy to point a finger, but where is the proof?"

"From respected government officials, now they have simply become rumor mongers. What a sad turn of events," she added.

Not yet

Despite statements from the FSGO, the group has yet to call on Mrs. Arroyo to resign because members are still contemplating on their next move.

"Personally I havent reached that point," said former agrarian reform secretary Philip Ella Juico, when asked if he is going to ask the President to resign.

Former trade minister Vicente Paterno, meanwhile, came up with two points on why he has not decided to seek Mrs. Arroyo's ouster.

"Number 1, she won't listen, number 2, it may satisfy some people emotionally but what will be the real result?"

But while members are not united on seeking Mrs. Arroyo's ouster, it said that the FSGO will remain as the conscience of the President.

The group is planning to go on a nationwide tour to explain their statements to the people.

Scrapping of E.O. 464 not enough

Although Mrs. Arroyo has scrapped Executive Order 464, the FSGO said that the revocation "does not serve the truth if Neri still invokes executive privilege and does not testify." They also said that "all records of the NBN-ZTE project have still not been submitted to the Senate."

These are two of the five demands in the letter that they issued last week. They were also demanding for the suspension of several government officials allegedly involved in the botched broadband deal with Chinese company ZTE Corp. They, too, were not heeded.

The statement is one of two that the FSGO will issue today. The other statement, prepared by former government top finance officials, disputes the much touted all time high economic growth that the President had always claimed to be the biggest achievement of her administration.

Other scandals

The FSGO said that the President has failed to implement checks and balances in her administration, resulting in many past scandals "to descent to a limbo of unresolved crimes against the public trust." In the letter, they enumerated past scandals that hit the Arroyo administration including the "fertilizer scam," "election cheating," and "shopping bags of cash in Malacanang."

"The NBN-ZTE scandal is just the latest monster in a larger pile of garbage from previous scandals," they said.

"The responsible exercise of Presidential power is an important instrument for serving our nation's interests. A President that leads with righteousness and wisdom is a great blessing. A President that serves evil is a terrible curse. To secure a blessing and avoid a curse in the Presidency, the founding leaders of our democracy established a system of checks and balances," they said. With reports from ABS-CBN News