Arroyo takes breather as opponents plan huge protest
Arroyo takes breather as opponents plan huge protest
Bill Tarrant, Manila/Reuters
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo won a reprieve after powerful Philippine bishops stopped short of demanding she quit, but the opposition vowed no let-up on Monday in a campaign to drive her from office.
Investors fretted markets would become increasingly volatile if the opposition takes its campaign to the streets while trying to impeach her -- the way Arroyo's predecessor, Joseph Estrada, was forced from power.
Stocks fell and the peso weakened after Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings downgraded outlooks for the Philippines, citing turmoil over allegations of vote-rigging against Arroyo and a court freeze on a tax hike intended to address the government's chronic budget deficit.
National police chief Arturo Lomibao said the 15,000-strong force in the capital was on full alert, as authorities braced for protests this week.
Various anti-Arroyo groups, noting the bishops had blessed non-violent appeals for her resignation, vowed to assemble a million people in Manila's business district on Wednesday.
The opposition has yet to muster more than several thousand protesters, far short of the hundreds of thousands who helped topple dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and Estrada in 2001.
The Catholic Church, which played a decisive role in the ouster of Marcos and Estrada, has been a power-broker in the Philippines since the Spanish conquered the country in the 16th century. But the Bishops in their statement on Sunday said they no longer believed in "intrusion into politics" under new Pope Benedict.
The size of the crowd on Wednesday will be a gauge of how much the public really cares about the crisis, which has played out so far among politicians on the airwaves, in Congress and among back-room power-brokers.
Police were worried militant groups such as Abu Sayyaf and the communist New People's Army might infiltrate the protests and create trouble.
Communist guerrillas have been waging a countryside war since 1969 to overthrow the Philippine government, which also faces Muslim separatist rebels and home-grown militants such as Abu Sayyaf with links to al-Qaeda and Jamaah Islamiyah.
Former president Corazon Aquino, who was carried to power on the first "people power" uprising, appealed again on Monday to Arroyo to resign so the crisis could end quickly and the nation would be spared a tumultuous impeachment process.
Arroyo's presidency had hung in the balance awaiting the judgment of the bishops on Sunday, after last week's mass resignation of her economic team and desertions of political and business allies.
With the clergy giving her at least temporary reprieve from the clamour for her to quit, her backers are now seeking to steer so far unproven allegations of election fraud and corruption in her family into an impeachment trial in Congress.
The opposition is reluctant to pursue that route because of the president's majorities in both houses, calling it a "trap".
A senior cabinet minister, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, told radio on Monday the bishops had reinforced Arroyo's resolve not to resign.
But they also said Arroyo's apology, for "a lapse in judgment" in speaking to an election official while votes were being counted last year, was insufficient.
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