Philippines' president urged to resign

LEADERS of one of the Philippines' most prominent universities yesterday urged President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign over elections fraud allegations and hand over power to her vice-president, but rejected any attempt to remove her by force.

De La Salle University, an upscale Catholic school with nearly 100,000 students nationwide, was the first important institution to add its voice to the clamour for Arroyo’s resignation that has been mainly pushed so far by the opposition, a cluster of ex-generals and left-wing groups.

“We pray her to voluntarily relinquish power so that a constitutional process of succession may proceed,” the university said.