PHILIPPINES: PRESIDENT ARROYO URGES POLITICAL CHANGE / PROTESTORS CONTINUE TO CALL FOR RESIGNATION OF PRESIDENT OVER ELECTION CORRUPTION
Record ID:
443020
PHILIPPINES: PRESIDENT ARROYO URGES POLITICAL CHANGE / PROTESTORS CONTINUE TO CALL FOR RESIGNATION OF PRESIDENT OVER ELECTION CORRUPTION
- Title: PHILIPPINES: PRESIDENT ARROYO URGES POLITICAL CHANGE / PROTESTORS CONTINUE TO CALL FOR RESIGNATION OF PRESIDENT OVER ELECTION CORRUPTION
- Date: 25th July 2005
- Summary: (BN09) MANILA, PHILIPPINES (JULY 25, 2005)(REUTERS) 1. SLV PRESIDENT GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO ENTERS CONGRESS HALL 0.05 2. WIDE OF AUDIENCE APPLAUDING 0.08 3. WIDE OF SENATE PRESIDENT FRANKLIN DRILON (LEFT) AND SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE JOSE DE VENECIA (RIGHT) OPEN SESSION 0.20 4. SLV SENATE PRESIDENT FRANKLIN DRILON 0.24 5. WIDE OF PRESIDENT ARROYO APPROACHING ROSTRUM 0.30 6. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO, SAYING: "The system clearly needs fundamental change and the sooner the better." 0.40 7. WIDE OF PLENARY HALL 0.44 8. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT ARROYO, SAYING: "It's time to start the great debate on charter change." 0.52 9. WIDE OF AUDIENCE APPLAUDING 0.56 10. SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) PRESIDENT ARROYO, SAYING: "We had the APEC anti-terrorism task force. Our victories against the war in terror has been acknowledged by no less than President Bush before the U.S. National Defense University. The Jemaah Islamiya and the Abu Sayyaf an only pick up the pieces on their broken backbone in Mindanao." 1.21 11. WIDE OF AUDIENCE LISTENING 1.23 12. SCU (SOUNDBITE)(English) PRESIDENT ARROYO, SAYING: "We politicians have done our best but maybe our best is not enough given the present system and perhaps we have strained the present political system to its final limit. It's time to turn to the people bring them to government, change the way that government is done." 1.51 13. WIDE OF DRILON AND DE VENECIA CLAPPING 1.55 14. VARIOUS OF STREET PROTEST 2.09 (W2) MANILA, PHILIPPINES (JULY 25, 2005) (REUTERS) 15. WIDE OF MASKED PROTESTERS SHOUTING PAROLES 2.17 16. CLOSE OF RIOT POLICE 2.19 17. PAN FROM SHOUTING PROTESTORS TO POLICE 2.26 18. WIDE OF BANNER SHOWING "GLORIA, NOLI STEPDOWN!" 2.30 19. WIDE OF CROWD WITH GIANT EFFIGY OF PRESIDENT ARROYO 2.34 20. WIDE OF PROTEST WITH BANNER READING "GOODSBYE GLORIA" HUNG OVER BRIDGE 2.39 21. WIDE OF POLICE MARCHING 2.46 22. SLV PROTESTERS WAVING PLACARDS "WE WANT GLORIA TO RESIGN" /PROTESTOR DRESSED AS STATUE OF LIBERTY 2.50 23. WIDE OF PROTEST MARCH WITH BANNERS 2.58 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 9th August 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MANILA, PHILIPPINES
- Country: Philippines
- Reuters ID: LVAF2S2V0GBIG5PBA2SBZ2164T55
- Story Text: Filipino President Arroyo urges system change as
foes try to oust her.
Filipino President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said on
Monday (July 25, 2005), it was time to overhaul a dysfunctional
political system in the Philippines but avoided any mention
of an attempt to impeach her over allegations of
vote-rigsystem.scripts.ging and corruption.
The annual state of the nation address, carried live on
radio and television, fell short of what many analysts had
expected to be a rousing plan of action at a time of deep
political crisis.
The opposition -- united in wanting Arroyo out but
otherwise fragmented -- filed an impeachment complaint in
the lower house of Congress earlier on Monday but did not
get enough support to send the motion straight to trial by senators in
the upper house.
The economy was "poised for take-off" but the political
system was a "hindrance to progress", Arroyo told a joint
session of Congress and a gallery of government workers,
army and police generals, and members of the influential
Roman Catholic clergy.
"It's time to start the great debate on charter
change," she said, referring to a proposed reworking of the
constitution and a possible shift to a parliamentary system
to ease gridlock and speed up the passage of laws.
The president was interrupted by frequent applause but
dozens of opposition lawmakers boycotted the speech and
about 40,000 protesters massed near the Congress building
across from hundreds of riot police and barriers of barbed
wire, demanding she resign.
It was the largest anti-Arroyo demonstration to date,
but far from the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who
took to the streets in "people power" revolts that
overthrew Ferdinand Marcos as dictator in 1986 and Joseph
Estrada as president in 2001.
Arroyo's supporters, who had marshalled a crowd of
120,000 in mid-July, managed just 15,000 at their own rally
on Monday.
She listed several achievements -- including stronger
tax collection, more spending on infrastructure and
improved security as peace talks with Muslim rebels gather
pace -- but the address was long on generalities and short
on specifics.
Other analysts criticised Arroyo for not stating how
she intended to tackle corruption, poverty and
malnutrition.
Arroyo, due to finish her second term in 2010, has
defied calls that she quit. She has been shoring up her
economic team and support base after mass resignations and
defections on July 8 appeared to be driving her presidency
to the brink of collapse.
Investors have been rattled by weeks of political
turmoil, fearing a lengthy and uncertain impeachment
process or a shift to a parliamentary system will delay
efforts to boost revenues, cut debt and stimulate an
economy that lags much of Southeast Asia.
Philippine financial markets were closed after the
president declared Monday a holiday in Manila.
Jose de Venecia, the lower house speaker and an Arroyo
ally, sent the impeachment motion to the justice committee,
which has 60 working days to weigh the merits of the
charges of cheating in last year's election, graft and
betraying the public trust.
Arroyo's opponents now must wait for the committee to
finish its deliberations before a vote in the lower house
on whether to send the impeachment complaint to the Senate.
Ronaldo Zamora, an opposition member of the lower
house, said Arroyo's rivals were still short of the
required support of one-third of the 235 law-makers.
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