Arroyo presses for reconciliation

No amount of repudiation will discourage President Arroyo from pressing for a "principled reconciliation" with her foes.

The President renewed her offer of a principled reconciliation amid doubt and skepticism yesterday.

Even her supporters in the People Power Coalition (PPC), like Sen. Joker Arroyo, said the President’s initiatives for reconciliation are just "for show," and there is no genuine effort to win over the critics and opponents of the Arroyo administration.

"I have called for reconciliation and healing as a moral duty and I will persist even if I am repudiated along the way," the President said.

She made another pitch for reconciliation in the presence of Rizal Gov. Nini Ynares, wife of former Gov. Casimiro Ynares, a close political ally of deposed President Joseph Estrada.

"Our country has suffered enough from extreme divisiveness," she said. "I am making this offer before things become worse for our people."

"We must not leave the Filipino people trapped in the middle of political clashes, lest we forget the people are sovereign and they expect more statesmanship and solidarity from their leaders," she said.

"My administration is reform and reconciliation," the President said. "This is my message for reconciliation. I will tell this to all of our people around the nation."

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye announced the other day that the President has convinced Davao Archbishop and incoming Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines president Fernando Capalla to be her "facilitator" for mending fences with groups critical of and opposed to the Arroyo administration.

Bunye said the President, with the support of the Cabinet, agreed Tuesday to resume the government’s reconciliation efforts amid the impeachment controversy that pitted the House of Representatives against the Supreme Court.

The controversy stemmed from the impeachment complaint filed against Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. by Reps. William Felix Fuentebella and Gilberto Teodoro of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) over what they alleged was Davide’s misuse of the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF).

However, the President’s endeavor to work out a principled reconciliation will have to wait until Capalla returns to Manila from Sydney, Australia.

Capalla flew to Sydney for a vacation after attending a special Cabinet meeting at the Palace Tuesday, where he was one of two resource persons who discussed the theological aspects of the Arroyo administration’s principled reconciliation policy. He returns to Manila next week.