By BLESS MALLARI & MAY VELASCO
P/StarCorrespondents

A CHURCH-backed multi-sectoral group organized a rally against the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Friday, drawing a crowd of some 3,000 at the Dagupan city plaza to protest the NBN-ZTE bribery scandal and the subsequent cover-up involving key government figures.

Archbishop Oscar Cruz, the staunch and outspoken critic of the Arroyo administration, was not around for the mass action as he was reportedly in Metro Manila but Fr. Oliver Mendoza, parish priest of San Fabian and convenor of the “Agco ed Tila (I am Against Lies) spearheaded the activity, the first in Pangasinan directed against the Arroyo governance.

A mass at the St John the Evangelist Cathedral celebrated by Bishop Renato Mayugba preceded the march along city streets and the rally at the public plaza.

Mendoza, in an interview over the radio, said the “search for truth” was in line with the call of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ for communal action on the current issues of corruption revolving on the National Broadband Network-ZTE deal and the revelations of star witness Rodolfo Noel Lozada.

Mendoza said other rallies are planned in the four vicariates of the Lingayen-Dagupan archdiocese.

Rally participants came mostly from the church sector and some businesmen’s groups. Prominently joining the mass action that started at 4 p.m. and lasted till the early evening hours were students and officials of different Catholic schools who were dismissed early from their classes to enable them to join the rally.

A local business manager, Ed Poserio, read the manifesto of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) urging reforms and morality in the government.

Many of the speakers at the rally said truth is being suppressed by the President thru her Executive Order 464 and called for its abolition so that functionaries like Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairman Romulo Neri will be free to divulge what he knows about controversial government projects like the NBN-ZTE deal.