Arroyo rejects call to resign amid scandal

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo rejected a former president's call to resign, saying it wouldn't solve a brewing political crisis.

The president's aides said the call by former leader Corazon Aquino wasn't the answer to the political crisis triggered by allegations of graft in a national broadband network deal, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported Tuesday .

The search for truth and justice must not be coupled with a political advocacy of resignation, lest other selfish motivations are imprinted to the call, deputy presidential spokesman Anthony Golez said in a statement.

Golez said the constitution Aquino is credited for establishing is the same document that has given us the solution for searching for the truth through our justice system, not through a resignation call or trial by publicity.

Macapagal-Arroyo is fending calls for her resignation amid allegations that her husband, Jose Miguel, and former Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos took millions of dollars in kickbacks from the alleged overpricing of the $329 million contract between the Philippine government and China's ZTE Corp. for the network project.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International