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Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Arroyo to step down if Congress cuts her term: spokesman (4:10 p.m.)
MANILA -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo rejected a call by a key ally to step down next year amid a protracted political crisis, and would only cut short her six-year term if Congress clips the constitutioonal limit, her spokesman said Tuesday.
Former President Fidel Ramos, who has remained by Arroyo's side through the months-long crisis, urged her Monday to end her term next year, then run for parliament under a new Constitution that would scrap the US-style two-chamber Congress and presidential system in favor of a unitary parliament.
Ramos said his support for Arroyo was waning, but he was giving her a chance to take steps to put the country in order.
Arroyo's spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, thanked Ramos for backing her but said she wouldn't cut her six-year term unless Congress shortens the constitutional limit, and the change is ratified in a plebiscite.
Arroyo's term would last until 2010 "and no one can take the mandate from her except the sovereign people through constitutionally sanctioned means," Bunye said in a statement.
"If Congress says that there should be a change in term or a cut in term and that's ratified by the people, I think that will be followed by the President," Bunye told DZBB radio. (AP)
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