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Thousands gather for anti-Arroyo rally in Manila
Associated Press - June 10, 2009
Oliver Teves, Manila – Thousands of Filipinos led by left-wing and church groups turned out for a rally Wednesday to protest moves to rewrite the constitution which they said were a ploy to prolong the president's stay in power.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's tumultuous nine years in office are to end with May 2010 elections, but her allies in the House of Representatives initiated moves last week to open the constitution to amendments, raising charges that term limits may be scrapped.
A protester wears a face mask with anti-government slogans written on it during a rally outside the presidential palace in Manila on June 9. (Photo: Reuters) Presidents can serve one six-year term. Arroyo took over from former President Joseph Estrada in 2001 after he was toppled in a military-backed revolt for alleged corruption, and then won her own term in 2004. Her spokesmen deny that she plans to stay beyond her mandate.
The opposition-dominated Senate has rejected any constitutional change at this time, but House Speaker Prospero Nograles says lawmakers can propose amendments without the upper chamber, setting the stage for the case to be decided in the Supreme Court.
About 5,000 police patrolled the streets of Manila's financial district of Makati, where the left-wing umbrella group Bayan said it expected up to 20,000 people to show up to "express in no unmistakable terms their vehement opposition to Arroyo's charter change."
"Let it be known that the people are united against moves to keep Arroyo in power," said Bayan Secretary-General Renato Reyes.
The head of the powerful Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, planned to join a parallel protest in his central Philippine diocese of Jaro.
Proponents of constitutional reform, including Arroyo, say the country should have a unicameral parliamentary form of government instead of the current US-style presidential system because it would be easier to pass critical legislation.
Arroyo has consistently ranked as the least popular of four Philippine presidents following the 1986 ouster of dictator Ferdinand Marcos. She has survived four coup attempts and four impeachment bids amid allegations of electoral fraud and bribery scandals.
Coup rumors have swirled again, leading the 120,000-member military to warn soldiers not to join the rally.
Socio-economic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto said renewed political uncertainty might affect investor confidence amid the global slowdown.
Meanwhile the Philippine election commission has chosen a Dutch-Filipino consortium to automate next year's national elections for the first time in hopes of curbing cheating.
Past Philippine elections have been marred by violence and a laborious manual vote count that is open to cheating.
Currently, voters are required to write the names of their chosen candidates. With the new system, votes are tallied and transmitted electronically, said Ferdinand Rafanan, head of the bidding committee of the Commission on Elections.
He said the Netherlands-based Smartmatic and its Philippine partner Total Information Management Inc. won the bid to provide 80,000 vote counting machines at a cost of $152 million.
"This is a turning point in Philippine elections," Rafanan said.
In past elections, results were not known until days or even weeks after the balloting. In some cases, contests have been resolved only years later after reviewing questionable ballot counts, with the real winning candidate sometimes replacing a sitting official close to the next election.
In 2004, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo defeated popular action movie star Fernando Poe Jr. but the opposition claimed she cheated and unsuccessfully tried over the next four years to unseat her through impeachment. She has denied the accusation.
Proponents of electronic voting say quicker results will curb if not prevent cheating, but opponents say it will be easier to manipulate the outcome by tinkering with the machines or the software.
Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica said his company is confident it can handle up to 50 million votes.
There are about 48 million registered voters.
Based on the company's experience with electronic voting in other countries, 80 percent of the results could be available within five to six hours after polls close, he said.
Within a day or two, all the results will be in, said Smartmatic Sales Director Cesar Flores.
Rafanan said the company will provide a technical staff of at least 40,000 nationwide. It will also have emergency power supply units and an additional 2,200 machines to replace any that break down.
The elections commission first attempted to hold nationwide electronic polls in 2004 but the Supreme Court voided the $2.2 million contract four months before the vote, citing a violation of bidding rules.
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