THE First Gentleman yesterday accused his critics of trying to kill him by forcing him to attend a Senate inquiry on World Bank-funded road projects in the Philippines that the Bank says are being rigged.

Jose Miguel Arroyo made the statement after his bi-weekly rehabilitation therapy at the St. Luke?s Medical Center in Quezon City.

?Up to now, there is nothing against me. There is no evidence. Everything is hearsay and no one has ever filed any case in the civil courts,? he said.

?They want to kill me, and I don?t want to die yet.?

Mr. Arroyo made the statement even as Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago and Minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. criticized the World Bank for claiming collusion and fraud in the bidding of its road projects here but refusing to provide evidence.

Santiago, chairman of the committee on economic affairs, was astonished to hear the Bank had prevented the Ombudsman from sharing with the Senate its report on the supposed collusion.

?There were so many witnesses in the investigation which lasted for over two years, and some of them might be lying,? she said.

But Senator Mar Roxas said Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez could not evade responsibility for her inaction on the World Bank report.

Senator Panfilo Lacson said Gutierrez could have conducted a full investigation on the alleged rigging by using the World Bank report as a lead.

On Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile?s motion, the committee members agreed to subpoena World Bank country president Bert Hofman to the next hearing.

Rep. Roger Mercado, chairman of the committee on public works and highways, urged the World Bank to apologize to the people implicated in its report.

Mr. Arroyo did not attend the Senate investigation yesterday on his doctors? orders, but he challenged Lacson to produce a copy of the World Bank report linking him to the funding mess.

His lawyer, Ruy Rondain, read a statement before the committee on economic affairs, in which Mr. Arroyo criticized the lack of due process in the face of the accusations against him.

?I have read that even the incomplete copies [of the World Bank report] held by some senators are not consistent with each other,? Orendain quoted Mr. Arroyo as saying.

?You will understand that there is an inherent difficulty in refuting allegations I have only read about.? Joyce Pangco Pa?ares, Fel V. Maragay, Roy Pelovello, Macon Ramos Araneta