PHILIPPINES: MANILA PRESS CONFERENCE BY RESIGNED CABINET MEMBERS CALLING ON PRESIDENT ARROYO TO QUIT.

Record ID: 647787

  • Title: PHILIPPINES: MANILA PRESS CONFERENCE BY RESIGNED CABINET MEMBERS CALLING ON PRESIDENT ARROYO TO QUIT.
  • Date: 8th July 2005
  • Summary: (BN04) MANILA, PHILIPPINES (JULY 8, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WS: RESIGNED CABINET MEMBERS AT NEWS BRIEFING. 0.05 2. MV: JOURNALISTS. 0.08 3. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) FINANCE SECRETARY CESAR PURISIMA SAYING: "As early as Tuesday, July 15, we had already made our decision to resign. The President pre-empted our moves. This pre-emption does not change our conviction that her decisions as of late are guided mainly by her determination to survive as President. We believe that she will continue to make her decisions according to this norm." 0.42 4. WS/ZOOM OUT: OF NEWS CONFERENCE. 0.44 5. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (English) PURISIMA SAYING: "The President can be part of the solution to this crisis by making the supreme sacrifice for God and country to voluntarily relinquish her office and allow her constitutional successor, the Vice President, to assume the presidency. Resignation is a legitimate constitutional option for effecting leadership change. Given the crisis in the presidency, this is the least disruptive and painful option that can swiftly restore normalcy and eventually bring us to prosperity." 1.29 6. JOURNALISTS PAN TO RESIGNED CABINET MEMBERS 1.36 7. CU: MANILA BULLETIN NEWSPAPER HEADLINE READING: "I WILL NOT RESIGN - GMA" 1.40 8. CU: NEWSPAPERS PILED UP AT NEWSPAPER STAND. 1.44 9. CU: PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER HEADLINE READING: "GMA TELLS CABINET: QUIT" 1.49 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 23rd July 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MANILA, PHILIPPINES
  • Country: Philippines
  • Reuters ID: LVABTTCALN5Q422OQ9V5L9068MQT
  • Story Text: Sacked Philippine ministers call on Arroyo to quit.



    Philippine Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima
    called on embattled President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to
    step down on Friday (July 8) as he and seven other cabinet
    ministers quit a day after she demanded their resignations.

    With tears in his eyes, Purisima said Arroyo's surprise
    announcement had pre-empted a resignation of the economic
    team
    over recent decisions that appeared to show she was more
    concerned about her political survival than fiscal reforms.

    "As early as Tuesday, July 15, we had already made our
    decision to resign. The President pre-empted our moves.

    This pre-emption does not change our conviction that her
    decisions as of late are guided mainly by her determination
    to survive as President. We believe that she will continue
    to make her decisions according to this norm," he said.

    The eight cabinet members called on Arroyo to hand power
    to her vice president, Noli de Castro.

    "The President can be part of the solution to this
    crisis by making the supreme sacrifice for God and country
    to voluntarily relinquish her office and allow her
    constitutional successor, the Vice President, to assume the
    presidency. Resignation is a legitimate constitutional
    option for effecting leadership change. Given the crisis in
    the presidency, this is the least disruptive and painful
    option that can swiftly restore normalcy and eventually
    bring us to prosperity," Purisma said.

    Police raised their alert level in Manila to maximum
    after the mass resignation at a news conference.

    Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin and Trade Secretary
    Juan Santos, as well as the heads of the main tax and
    customs
    agencies, were among those who resigned.

    Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri and Energy Secretary
    Raphae
    l Lotilla were not at the news conference.

    Arroyo, facing opposition demands she quit over
    allegations she cheated her way to victory in last year's
    election and that
    members of her family took payoffs from illegal gambling,
    said on Thursday (July 7) she would not step down.

    The peso weakened as far as 56.44 to the dollar in
    morning trade on Friday -- just a shade from its record low
    of
    56.45, reached six weeks before the May 2004 elections and
    revisited in October.

    Some analysts had said financial markets would have
    liked Purisima and the other main economic managers to
    stay on for now to keep Arroyo's reform agenda moving to
    improve weak revenue collection and cut debt of nearly $70
    billion.

    Investors were already rattled by weeks of political
    crisis over the allegations and a Supreme Court freeze on a
    tax package
    at the heart of Arroyo's economic reforms.

    Arroyo said she had asked her cabinet to resign to give
    her the freedom to push economic and political reforms, but
    that her
    new team would have a "free hand on governance".

    Arroyo, whose second term is due to run until 2010, has
    made no secret of plans to change the two-chamber
    congressional system to a single parliament to speed up
    passage of laws.

    Despite opposition attempts to whip up rage against
    Arroyo, protests have been relatively small. Her rivals
    lack a unifying
    leader and have offered few ideas to develop the economy.

    But some of the business groups, middle-class
    professionals and Catholic church leaders who form
    Arroyo's support base have begun to pull back.


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