We are Former Senior Government Officials who have served the people in various capacities as public officials appointed by several Presidents of the Republic, from Diosdado Macapagal to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Many of us have participated in the preparation of the State of the Nation Address of several presidents.

The nation awaits the ninth State of the Nation Address of the incumbent president. It is supposed to be her final message to Congress in joint session assembled, before she leaves the presidency on June 30, 2010, as mandated by the fundamental law of the land.

More than any report of achievement or promise of legacy, what the Filipino people want to hear from her, at this time, are firm declarations that would finally disprove their greatest fears – that democracy is once more at peril, and that the scheduled elections of May 2010 shall be either sham or failure.

Our people have in the past demonstrated their capacity to remove a dictator from power peacefully. This time, they will move to prevent any attempt to thwart our democratic rights. They will not wait for another dictator to seize power by whatever subterfuge.

And so the Filipino people must expect Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to declare on or before July 27, 2009, the day she addresses Congress:

That she will relinquish all power at noon of June 30, 2010, and thus allow the peaceful and orderly transfer of power to her duly-elected successor;

That she will not allow any effort to alter, amend or re-write the Constitution before June 30, 2010, nor would she support any effort to prepare for a Constituent Assembly, and would leave it to the next leadership in both the executive and legislative branches of government to call for an elected Constitutional Convention to amend the charter;

That she will ensure that all support mechanisms will be undertaken to ensure clean, honest, free and orderly elections on May 10, 2010, and will not in any way use the powers and resources of her incumbent office to influence or alter the people’s free and sovereign choice of their next leaders, nor in any way cause the failure of said electoral exercise;

And that she will not entertain any suggestions or attempts to impose emergency rule or martial law, and would prosecute all public officials who suggest the same in public statements calling for a revolutionary or transition government, all of which are anathema to democratic order.

Failure on her part to forthrightly declare all these should be taken by the Filipino people as clear intent to thwart the elections of 2010 under the mandates of law and the Constitution.

It is clear in most every public opinion survey that the people want the elections of 2010 to proceed and succeed in electing a new set of leaders. The second quarter survey of the Social Weather Stations for the current year reinforces previous public opinion research on the non-acceptability of charter change. Seven out of every ten adult Filipinos nationwide oppose changing the Constitution to allow her continued rule beyond June 30, 2010. In the National Capital Region, fully 83% oppose it.

We, the Former Senior Government Officials therefore ask the Filipino people to be prepared to do anything and everything to thwart all plans and attempts to prolong the rule of the present administration under the leadership of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. We call on all sectors of the population, whatever their calling, wherever they are in these islands, to be prepared to resist.

We have thwarted the enemies of democracy before. We should be prepared to do it again.