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Monday, July 25, 2005
Speech may test capacity to rule, anti-Arroyo force
MANILA -- All eyes will be on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as she delivers her State of the Nation Address (Sona) this afternoon, which may be used to convince Filipinos and foreign investors that she can still lead the country despite the wiretapping scandal and the impeachment charges she will face.
The constitutional amendments and other reforms the President is predicted to propose in Sona aim to help recover public confidence in her eroded administration and thus allow her to continue to govern even during an impeachment trial.
For the opposition, the show of force in its rallies against Arroyo Monday can provide the proof it has so far failed to show: that more people want the President to quit than those who want her to stay.
Security forces across the country have been put on alert and some 6,000 riot police are to be deployed outside Congress, where members of the opposition are trying to muster large crowds to back calls for her resignation.
Police have said they will not allow protesters to come within three kilometers of the Batasan Pambansa complex in Quezon City where the President will make her fifth Sona.
Aside from the riot police, the entire 15,000-member Manila police force and two battalions of army infantry--some 1,000 soldiers--will be on standby, according to Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes.
In Cebu, transport strikes, on top of rallies by two anti-Arroyo organizations, will be held, but classes will go on.
Arroyo's chief aide, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, told reporters that Monday's address could well contain proposals for constitutional change and pro-poor programs.
Members of the opposition, meanwhile, are planning their largest rally calling for Arroyo's ouster during the speech, Ermita said.
"They are building this up so the public will see how large the opposition is against President Arroyo," he added.
But outside the leftist ranks, the traditional opposition parties have not announced plans to join the street protests--their leaders instead focusing their efforts on the impeachment case.
Inside the legislature, several opposition legislators have declared they will boycott Arroyo's speech while some have even threatened to walk out during her address.
Opposition lawmakers said Sunday they will take the battle to oust Arroyo to the streets if her dominant allies in Congress block an impeachment complaint.
Lawmakers were finalizing the complaint--a draft claimed Arroyo "stole, cheated and lied" to rise and stay in power--that they plan to file Monday before she delivers her nationally televised address, opposition Iloilo Representative Rolex Suplico said.
Arroyo's aides have taken steps to block the new complaint on a legal technicality.
The complaint cites at least 10 alleged crimes, including elections fraud, corruption and obstruction of justice, and claims she is vulnerable to at least four of the six constitutional grounds for impeachment, Suplico said.
"If there is no chance for our complaint to be accepted by the House (of Representatives), we intend to withdraw it and tell the people that there is no hope in the impeachment process," Suplico told The Associated Press. "We can now go to the streets."
Arroyo has been fighting for her political survival since early June when wiretapped conversations surfaced that allegedly reveal a conspiracy between the President and an election official to give her more than a million winning margin in the May 2004 elections.
The President has apologized in public for what she described as an impropriety of calling an election official during the vote count and has rejected calls to resign.
Cebu officials, led by Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and Cebu City Vice Mayor Michael Rama, are among those expected to attend the Sona.
The President will enter the Batasan session hall at 3:55 p.m. and deliver her Sona a few minutes after Senate President Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Jose de Venecia declare the joint session opened.
During her address, Arroyo is expected to unveil proposals to take the Philippines away from the gridlock-prone presidential form of government into a parliamentary system.
Critics say the current system is susceptible to stalemate because of the system's three independent and co-equal branches of government, often working at odds with one another.
Those favoring change say a parliamentary system, with the executive and legislative branches effectively fused and pulling in the same direction, would be more suitable to push through much-needed reforms.
Ermita said Arroyo's advisers believe that "the worst is over," noting disparate opposition groups had mustered no more than 30,000 people at their largest protest rallies earlier this month.
Both the opposition and the Arroyo camp know they face major hurdles in their respective objectives: to have the impeachment case sent to trial in the Senate and for Congress to agree to rewrite the Constitution.
An endorsement from 79 members of the House of Representatives would send the impeachment case to trial immediately without recourse to lengthy debates.
Arroyo was once supported by all but 38 members of the 235-seat chamber of representatives but some allies have since turned against her
A two-thirds vote in both the House of Representatives and the 24-seat Senate is needed before Congress can rewrite the 1987 constitution, but with no single bloc controlling the Senate, such a tally would be hard to reach. (AP/Manila Standard Today/Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
(July 25, 2005 issue)
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