PHILIPPINES: OPPOSITION CONCEDES DEFEAT ON THE VOTE WHETHER TO IMPEACH PRESIDENT ARROYO
Record ID:
328646
PHILIPPINES: OPPOSITION CONCEDES DEFEAT ON THE VOTE WHETHER TO IMPEACH PRESIDENT ARROYO
- Title: PHILIPPINES: OPPOSITION CONCEDES DEFEAT ON THE VOTE WHETHER TO IMPEACH PRESIDENT ARROYO
- Date: 5th September 2005
- Summary: (BN04) MANILA, PHILIPPINES (SEPTEMBER 6, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF PLENARY HALL CONGRESS 0.07 2. SLV DEPUTY HOUSE SPEAKER BANGING GAVEL 0.18 3. WIDE OF LAWMAKER DELIVERING SPEECH 0.24 4. WIDE OF LAWMAKERS SEATED, 0.30 5. SLV GROUP OF POLITICANS TALKING 0.43 6. SLV BEN LIM, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS AT ATENEO UNIVERSITY, WALKING 0.46 6. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR BEN LIM SAYING: "In the coming years she will not be able to govern effectively. Number one, her credibility rating with the Filipino people has been very much reduced. Eight out of ten Filipino people no longer believe in her. And seven out of ten Filipinos would like her change as president. Given that kind of public attitude and sentiments it is unlikely that she can govern effectively. Especially with the problem of the economy, with high prices of energy going still higher and the fact that she is going to impose the extended value added tax will bring up the prices of basic commodities that will create social unrest. And with her unpopularity and charges against her, I think she will become, in fact, she is already a lame duck president." 1.45 7. SLV BEN LIM 1.50 8. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIVERSITY PROFFESOR BEN LIM SAYING: "President Arroyo will win a temporary victory. That means to say she can now leave the Philippines and tell her foreign hosts that she is a legitimate president and that the case against her has been dismissed. And that although the opposition are taking to the streets, it is expected because they are bad losers, poor losers. That would be her position but unfortunately the turmoil will continue. And it will hound her for as long as she will not address the issue of what really happened during the last elections. She has to explain or come out with a credible explanation to the people of the republic. Because eighty percent of the people are still waiting for an explanation from her." 2.42 (BN04) MANILA, PHILIPPINES(SEPTEMBER 5, 2005) (REUTERS) 9. WIDE OF ANTI ARROYO PRESS BRIEFING WITH FORMER PRESIDENT CORAZON AQUINO 2.50 10. SCU (SOUNDBITE)(English/Filipino) FORMER PRESIDENT CORAZON AQUINO SAYING: "Perhaps it is good for us to show our support to the congressmen by being out there and marching. It has been awhile since I last march. Maybe this is one way of telling them how much it means not only to me but to all of us who love our democracy and who are searching for the truth." 3.09 (BN04) MANILA,PHILIPPINES (SEPTEMBER 6, 2005) REUTERS) 11. VARIOUS OF RIOT POLICE WAITING OUTSIDE CONGRESS 3.13 12. WIDE OF RIOT POLICE WITH SHIELDS 3.19 13. SLV TWO WAITING RIOT POLICE EATING ICE CREAMS 3.26 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 20th September 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MANILA, PHILIPPINES
- Country: Philippines
- Reuters ID: LVADWG7I53UX37FR69NWQR7465KU
- Story Text: Philippine opposition concedes impeachment defeat.
The Philippine opposition conceded defeat on Tuesday
(September 6) in a vote on whether to impeach President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, but said it would keep up its
campaign to unseat her through the courts and in the
streets.
With over half the 236 lower house votes cast, only 31
lawmakers had voted to impeach Arroyo over allegations of
electoral fraud and graft, leaving the opposition well short
of the 79 it needed to send Arroyo to a Senate trial.
"We may have lost, we may have not gotten the 79
signatures, this does not mean that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
has won," lower house opposition leader Francis Escudero
said in a speech.
"The search for truth is not yet over, the president
and her allies will be haunted by the accusations ... it
will hound her wherever she may go."
Analysts had expected Arroyo's solid majority in
Congress to ensure she won the vote, which began on Monday
and stretched through the night as each lawmaker explained
his vote.
But it may prove a hollow victory, leaving suspicions
that she has used her political machinery to block a
thorough probe into allegations she tried to fix last
year's election.
Former president Corazon (Cory) Aquino, an icon of the
"people power" revolt that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos
in 1986, planned to join thousands of protesters in a march
to the Congress building on Tuesday to protest against
Arroyo.
Aquino's participation in a rally for the first time in
the months-old crisis marks a broadening of the opposition
forces against Arroyo, whom many still view as a usurper
because of her rise from vice-president on the back of
protests that ousted her predecessor, Joseph Estrada, in
2001.
The protests so far have been relatively small and the
crucial middle class has yet to join the fray. Both the
Catholic Church and the army, key players in the popular
uprisings of 1986 and 2001, have also declined to take
sides.
The defeat of the impeachment bid should ease pressure
on Arroyo and enable her to focus on shifting the country
to a parliamentary system from the U.S. presidential system
that she and others have blamed for the political
instability and corruption that plague the nation.
Arroyo devoted much of her annual state-of-the-nation
speech in July to pushing for an overhaul of the
dysfunctional system.
Critics said Arroyo's stance was aimed at deflecting
attention from the allegations against her and at appeasing
Congress leaders who have long pushed for constitutional
change.
Many political analysts also doubt that constitutional
change will be worth the effort without first tackling
underlying problems of corruption, feudalism and flawed
elections, which were highlighted by the allegations
against Arroyo.
"In the coming years she will not be able to govern
effectively. Number one, her credibility rating with the
Filipino people has been very much reduced. Eight out of
ten Filipino people no longer believe in her. And seven out
of ten Filipinos would like her change as president. Given
that kind of public attitude and sentiments it is unlikely
that she can govern effectively. Especially with the
problem of the economy, with high prices of energy going
still higher and the fact that she is going to impose the
extended value added tax will bring up the prices of basic
commodities that will create social unrest. And with her
unpopularity and charges against her, I think she will
become, in fact, she is already a lame duck president,"
said Ben Lim, Professor of International Politics at
Manila's Ateneo University.
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