|
Monday, June 13, 2005
Arroyo asks: End 'dirty politics'
MANILA -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pleaded for unity Sunday and vowed to use her power to safeguard democracy and economic reforms amid allegations of election fraud and corruption that have rocked her administration and set off fresh coup rumors.
"Mark it on stone, I would harness my power and determination for a strong democracy and to keep the country focused on the right path," Arroyo said in a speech at heavily guarded Independence Day celebrations in a Manila park.
"As we extol the lessons and memory of our heroes today, I call on everybody to ward off dirty politics and fix our attention on bringing the economy forward," Arroyo said.
Last week, Arroyo faced her toughest period since last year's bitterly contested presidential election because of allegations that she tried to fix the poll results--an impeachable offense--and her family had pocketed illegal gambling payoffs.
The government strongly denied the accusations, saying they were part of a plot to unseat Arroyo. Government troops in the capital and national police were placed on full alert against a possible power grab, spooking markets in a country with a recent history of
coup attempts.
A key witness in a Senate investigation on illegal gambling claimed she had delivered illegal gambling payoffs to Arroyo's son and brother-in-law, who are both members of the House of Representatives. The two denied the accusations.
On Friday, Samuel Ong, the dismissed deputy head of the Justice Department's investigation agency, claimed he was the source of an audio recording on which Arroyo purportedly talks to an election official about fixing last year's election to gain a 1 million vote margin over her closest rival, Fernando Poe Jr., who died in December following a stroke.
Ong said disgruntled military intelligence agents gave him the alleged wiretaps. Fearing for his life and arrest, he sought refuge in a Roman Catholic seminary and called on people to protect him, drawing a small anti-government crowd. A phalanx of riot policemen arrived to keep order.
Opposition politicians said they have sent the taped recordings to voice experts in Australia and the United States to verify if they were altered, as claimed by Arroyo's aides, to portray her as trying to fix the election's outcome. They expect to receive the findings in a few days--an indication they plan to press their election fraud allegation against Arroyo.
About 5,000 protesters on Saturday demanded Arroyo's resignation in the biggest anti-government rally since the allegations surfaced, but later peacefully dispersed.
Government troops were posted at key access points to the capital and at Manila's airport to prevent anti-government protesters from nearby provinces from entering the capital. But there has been no sign of either deep military unrest or the large disgruntled crowds that gathered in the capital for peaceful "people power" revolts that toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and President Joseph Estrada in 2001.
About 300 soldiers were pulled off guard duty as political tension appeared to have eased over the weekend, and military officials were considering to downgrade a full alert status in the capital. Hundreds of other troops, however, remained on guard in the presidential palace and elsewhere in the metropolis, officials said.
Military chief of staff General Efren Abu said Sunday, "the chain of command remains intact." His spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Bienvenido Pascual, said the military would not hesitate to use force against groups aiming to destabilize the government. (AP)
(June 13, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
|
|
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
