Philippines: Arroyo's ministers quit in protest

A third of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s Cabinet quit en masse today and urged the Philippine leader to step down, saying she has been crippled by an election scandal and has lost the ability to lead.

The Liberal Party, a key part of the ruling coalition backing Arroyo, also called for her resignation and said it would support impeachment if she doesn’t yield power.

They were the latest blows to Arroyo, who looked increasingly isolated amid accusations tht she talked to an election official about ensuring a million-vote victory in last year’s presidentia vote.

The capital’s police force went on full alert and additional contingents were securing the presidential palace to prevent rowdy demonstrations that could disrupt government services, Metropolitan Manila police chief Vidal Querol said.

“There are situations and we don’t want the police to get caught flat-footed,” Querol said, without elaborating.

The leftist group Bayan urged stepped-up street protests, which so far have been a fraction of the size of the “people power” revolts that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and Arroyo’s predecessor, Joseph Estrada, in 2001. Coup rumours have been circulating.

Bayan and the leftist Struggle of the Masses coalition said Vice President Noli de Castro wasn’t necessarily an acceptable alternative to Arroyo, questioning whether he also had been tainted by election fraud.

The military, which played key roles in those peaceful oustings, urged its forces to avoid political involvement.

“Commanders should act swiftly against any behaviour that challenges or breaks away from the chain of command,” said military chief of staff Gen. Efren Abu. “Thi is not the time for weakness.”

Joseph Mussomeli, the US Embassy’ deputy chief of mission, said Washington firmly opposes any forced change of power, including another round of “people power” – “anything that will weaken the institutions that we genuinely believe are the true safeguards for your own liberty.”

The backbone of Arroyo’s economic team – her economic, trade and budget secretaries – were among the eight government mnisters and two other members of her Cabinet who abandoned her.

The stock market, slumping on concerns about instability, actually rallied on hopes that the disruptive crisis might be entering a peaceful end game.

The combative Arroyo, who appeared to be hanging on by her fingernails, had no immediate comment on the resignations. The rest of her Cabinet held a news conference declaring their support for her.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said the Cabinet defectors believe that Arroyo’s recent decisions have been “guided mainly by her determination to survive as president”.

“The longer the president stays in office under a cloud of doubt and mistrust and with her style of decision-making, the greater the damage on the economy and the more vulnerable the fragile political situation becomes to extremists seeking to undermine our democratic life,” Purisima said in a joint statement that he read at a news conference, flanked by the other nine Cabinet members.

“In the end the poor will suffer the most. 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,” Purisima said.

The move came after a defiant Arroyo gave a hastily arranged radio address last night, saying she won’t step down and asking her entire Cabinet to resign to give her manoeuvring room to survive her biggest crisis.

Rumours had been swirling that some Cabinet members had been preparing to resign, so Arroyo took the offensive to forestall the sense that the push to force her out was turning into an avalanche.