Nine die as Filipinos choose president

Filipinos voted for president today amid high security and reports of scattered violence in a race pitting an incumbent who strongly backs the US war on terror against a film star whose best friend lost the job in disgrace three years ago.

The final pre-election opinion polls showed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo pulling ahead of actor Fernando Poe Jr., but the surveys also indicated as many as one-quarter of the nation’s 43 million voters were undecided.