At least 10 members of the cabinet of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo resigned Friday and called on the president to do the same, saying the longer she stays, the more it hurts the country.

The 10 cabinet members who showed up at a press conference in a five-star hotel in Metro Manila included almost the entire economic team of Arroyo, in whom most part of the confidence of international investors lay.

"With deep concern and firm resolve, after a long period of reflection, debate and consultation, we are hereby submitting our collective irrevocable resignation," Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima read a prepared statement to the press at the Hyatt Hotel in Pasay City.

"The President can be part of the solution to this crisis by making the supreme sacrifice for God and country to voluntarily relinquish her office and allow her constitutional successor, the vice president, to assume the Presidency," he said.

The mass quitting of camp came after Arroyo made a surprise announcement Thursday night calling on her whole cabinet to quit to pave the way for a shake-up of the political system of the country, which Arroyo said was not working any more.

But rumors circulated that some cabinet members were already pressuring Arroyo to resign over allegation that she cheated in last year's election and her family was involved in the illegal gambling business.

Some cabinet members were already asking Vice President Noli deCastro to take over the presidency in accordance with the constitutional process.

The 10 cabinet members who left the government said Arroyo's "resignation was a legitimate constitutional option for effecting leadership change".

"Given the crisis in the Presidency, this is the least disruptive and painful option that can swiftly restore normalcy and eventually bring us to prosperity," he said.

In her speech Thursday night, Arroyo said she would not resign because that would hurt the country's image further in front of the international community as a nation incessantly engulfed in political turmoil.

Arroyo also said she did not expect the political system of the Philippines to have degenerated into such a miserable state when she entered political stage several years ago.

She said she would bring up a solution to the crisis facing the nation now by fundamentally reforming the system and introducing federalism to replace the present one copied from the US model.
 
The cabinet officials who resigned were Florencio Abad of Education, Teresita Quintos Deles, adviser on peace process, Imelda Nicolas of the National Anti Poverty Commission, Juan Santos of Trade and Industry, Alberto Lina of the Bureau of Customs, Emilia Boncodin of Budget, Cesar Purisima of Finance, Corazon Juliano Soliman of Social Welfare, Rene Villa of Agrarian Reform, and Guillermo Parayno, commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

They said the longer Arroyo stays in power, the greater the damage to the economy, and that in the end the poor will suffer the most.

The Philippine stock market and the peso both fell in response to the statement.

(Xinhua News Agency, Chinadaily.com via agencies July 8, 2005)