- Title: PHILIPPINES: ELECTION ROW DEEPENS AS MARKETS FRET OVER UNCERTAINTY.
- Date: 18th June 2004
- Summary: (U3) MENDIOLA, MANILA, PHILIPPINES (JUNE 18, 2004) (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 1. MV/PAN/GV: PRO FERNANDO PO JR GROUP BEING DISPERSED BY POLICE WITH WATER CANNON (4 SHOTS) 0.43 (U3) QUEZON CITY, METRO MANILA, PHILIPPINES (JUNE 17, 2004) (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 2. LV/GV/CU: CANVASSING OF VOTES BY JOINT CONGRESSIONAL AND SENATE COMMITTEE (4 SHOTS) .07 3. SOUNDBITE (English) BENITO LIM, PROFESSOR IN COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH AT ATENEO UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES BENITO LIM SAYING: "There is suspicion of widespread cheating. And the administration is unwilling to allow verification even in Congress. They give the impression that anybody who wanted verification is trying to destabilize the government or prolong the counting so that the president will not be proclaimed." 1.35 (U3) NAVOTAS, METRO MANILA, PHILIPPINES (JUNE 16, 2004) (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 4. MV: PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FERNANDO POE JR. SURROUNDED BY SUPPORTERS 1.49 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FERNANDO POE JR. SAYING: "They are trying to protect that president. That president that has no mandate of the people." 2.02 (U3) MANILA, PHILIPPINES (JUNE 12, 2004) (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 6. GV/PAN: PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT GLORIA MACAPAGAL ARROYO DURING INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION 2.12 (U3) MAKATI CITY, METRO MANILA, PHILIPPINES (JUNE 18, 2004) (REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) 7. TV/GV/MV: TRADING FLOOR (4 SHOTS) 2.31 8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALI YU, STOCKBROKER, MAKATI STOCK EXCHANGE SAYING: " Its been taking too long-- in fact the investors or whatever is left who are keeping an eye on our country they have remained on the sidelines. They in fact are waiting for things to clear up because the way things are going and also with the peso rate deteriorating and a lot of international factors also weighing in on the market everything is on stand still" 2.58 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 3rd July 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MANILA, PHILIPPINES
- Country: Philippines
- Reuters ID: LVA6XA0PNK8LOPBIYHDSKT83HRLH
- Story Text: Philippine election row deepened as markets fret
over uncertainty.
Five weeks after they voted, Filipinos are still
waiting to find out whether President Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo has won a fresh six-year term and held off a strong
challenge from film icon Fernando Poe Jr, whose allies
accuse the government of cheating.
The Philippine opposition tried for a second time on
Thursday (June 17) to stop Congress counting the votes from
May 10 elections, deepening investor despair over a
political spectacle that is clouding the country's future.
Vote-canvassing by a panel of Congress has crawled
along as opposition politicians question procedures and
give long speeches on technicalities, raising concern about
a constitutional crisis if a new president is not declared
by a June 30 deadline.
Aquilino Pimentel, an opposition senator, delivered on Thursday
the
opposition's second petition asking the
Supreme Court to stop the count on the grounds that since
Congress has already adjourned, the panel's count is
illegal.
The court threw out the first case last week.
Meanwhile, Filipinos are getting impatient and anxious over
the future of their country.
Arroyo is ahead of Poe on the panel's partial count of
votes, and is expected to win in line with results from an
independent watchdog and a leak from an election official.
Newspapers have reported that opposition members are
planning to walk out of the panel at some point in an
attempt to stir up the kind of mass public protest that has
twice overthrown governments in the impoverished Southeast
Asian nation.
Benito Lim, a professor in communications says its the
credibility of the government that is now at stake.
" There is suspicion of widespread cheating. And the
administration is unwilling to allow verification even in
Congress. They give the impression that anybody who wanted
verification is trying to destabilize the government or
prolong the counting so that the president will not be
proclaimed." said Lim.
Poe, in a rare public appearance since the election,
raised the temperature this week by saying that Arroyo
would be a "bogus president" if she was elected on a flawed
count.
"They are trying to protect that president. That
president that has no mandate of the people. And that
mandate, for her will never happen !" said Poe.
Many in the opposition say the trained economist's
first term from 1998 was illegal because she was installed
after protests ousted Joseph Estrada, another actor and a
friend of Poe, in a replay of "people power" protests that
turfed out dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.
In another twist, the police chief warned Poe that
communist guerrillas had sent two assassins to Manila on a
mission to kill him and other opposition figures.
Cheating, bizarre rumours and protests are par for the
course in any Philippine election, but investors and
political analysts are becoming more concerned as the
feuding drags on, detracting attention from the country's
deep economic problems.
" Its been taking too long-- in fact the investors or
whatever is left who are keeping an eye on our country they
have remained on the sidelines. They in fact are waiting
for things to clear up because the way things are going and
also with the peso rate deteriorating and a lot of
international factors also weighing in on the market
everything is on stand still," said stockbroker Ali Yu.
The peso fell near its record low of 56.45 against the
dollar, partly on political worries, and Manila stocks have
been subdued for weeks as they wait for a new president and
an economic agenda.
Any new government needs to tackle several violent
rebel groups, a crippling budget deficit that adds to
government debts worth 77 percent of GDP, widespread
corruption, Southeast Asia's highest unemployment rate and
a huge gap between rich and poor.
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