Posted on 07/07/2005 10:15:13 PM PDT by HAL9000
A third of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's Cabinet quit en masse Friday and urged the Philippine leader to step down, saying she has been crippled by an election scandal and has lost the ability to lead.It was the latest blow to Arroyo, who looked increasingly isolated amid accusations that she talked to an election official about ensuring a million-vote victory in last year's presidential vote.
The capital's police force went on full alert and additional contingents were securing the presidential palace to prevent rowdy demonstrations that could disrupt government services, Metropolitan Manila police chief Vidal Querol said.
"There are situations and we don't want the police to get caught flat-footed," Querol said, without elaborating.
The leftist group Bayan urged stepped-up street protests, which so far have been a fraction of the size of the "people power" revolts that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and Arroyo's predecessor, Joseph Estrada, in 2001. Coup rumors have been circulating.
Bayan and the leftist Struggle of the Masses coalition said Vice President Noli de Castro wasn't necessarily an acceptable alternative to Arroyo, questioning whether he also had been tainted by election fraud.
The military, which played key roles in those peaceful ousters, urged its forces to avoid political involvement.
"Commanders should act swiftly against any behavior that challenges or breaks away from the chain of command," military chief of staff Gen. Efren Abu said in a statement. "This is not the time for weakness."
Joseph Mussomeli, the U.S. Embassy's deputy chief of mission, said Washington firmly opposes any forced change of power, including another round of "people power" _ "anything that will weaken the institutions that we genuinely believe are the true safeguards for your own liberty."
The backbone of Arroyo's economic team _ her economic, trade and budget secretaries _ were among the eight government ministers and two other members of her Cabinet who abandoned her.
The stock market, slumping on concerns about instability, actually rallied on hopes that the disruptive crisis might be entering a peaceful end game.
The combative Arroyo, who appeared to be hanging on by her fingernails, had no immediate comment on the resignations.
Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said the Cabinet defectors believe that Arroyo's recent decisions have been "guided mainly by her determination to survive as president."
"The longer the president stays in office under a cloud of doubt and mistrust and with her style of decision-making, the greater the damage on the economy and the more vulnerable the fragile political situation becomes to extremists seeking to undermine our democratic life," Purisima said in a joint statement that he read at a news conference, flanked by the other nine Cabinet members.
"In the end the poor will suffer the most. The president can be part of the solution to this crisis by making the supreme sacrifice for God and country to voluntarily relinquish her office and allow her constitutional successor, the vice president, to assume the presidency," Purisima said.
The move came after a defiant Arroyo gave a hastily arranged radio address Thursday night, saying she won't step down and asking her entire Cabinet to resign to give her maneuvering room to survive her biggest crisis.
Rumors had been swirling that some Cabinet members had been preparing to resign, so Arroyo took the offensive to forestall the sense that the push to force her out was turning into an avalanche.
Several of Arroyo's closest advisers in the Cabinet backed her. Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales suggested that the resigning officials were grandstanding.
"They have tried to do this probably in order to appear like heroes and the rest of us are villains," he said.
Opposition Sen. Aquilino Pimentel called Arroyo's address a panic move: "Like in chess, she's close to a checkmate."
If Arroyo goes down, the U.S.-trained economist _ one of Washington's close allies _ made clear it won't be without a fight.
"First of all, I am not resigning my office," said Arroyo, who earlier claimed her opponents have no platform other than to get rid of her and were engaged in "the most cynical manipulation" of the populace.
Opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who finished third in the May 2004 presidential vote _ runner-up Fernando Poe Jr. died of a stroke in December _ derided Arroyo's request.
"She should be the one to resign, not the members of her Cabinet, because she is the cause of political instability and the root of political turmoil," Lacson told DZBB radio.
Arroyo again denied she did anything wrong in talking to an election official during the ballot count about protecting a million-vote lead, and lamented endemic corruption.
"Our political system has degenerated to such an extent that it is very difficult to live within the system with hands totally untainted," Arroyo said.
God. The Philippines are still a mess after all these years.
OH MAN NOT AGAIN man Phillipines can't govt themselves
I'm amazed the place holds together at all. If, indeed, something just short of chaos can be called "holding together".
It has been amazingly peaceful though we were in areas considered "dangerous". We actually did have an encounter with an NPA in the Bohol countryside when my son got out to pee by the roadside. He approached the vehicle and told our driver he wanted to collect a "revolutionary tax". He was unarmed and the driver brushed him off.
There is so much potential here (especially Mindanao) and so many good people, but the corruption and political instability keep driving investors away. Nontheless, I don't think the risks to investors are quite as great as they are perceived to be. I've talked to Filipinos who are afraid to go to General Santos when, in fact, it's safer than many parts of U.S. cities.
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