| As the Philippines sank deeper into yet another scandal, the beleaguered President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, faced fresh calls from a coalition of church and opposition leaders for her resignation.
The latest revelations concern a deal with a Chinese broadband company, from which it is alleged that the President’s husband, Miguel, received $239 million in irregular payments (News, 22 February). The source of the allegations is a civil servant, Rodolfo Lozada, whose testimony to a congressional hearing Mrs Arroyo has repeatedly sought to block.
The President’s response has drawn anger from church and opposition figures. Seven Roman Catholic bishops, led by Archbishop Oscar Cruz, demanded her resignation. Similar demands have been made by the former President, Cory Aquino, whose accession to power in the popular uprising of 1986 was marked by a state holiday and various rallies on Tuesday of last week. Most of those events turned into anti-Arroyo protests.
A Charismatic Protestant, Edward Villanueva — known as “Brother Eddie” — who heads the “Jesus is Lord” Evangelical movement, has taken the lead in denouncing the “immoral leadership” of Mrs Arroyo. Mr Villanueva, who in the 2004 presidential election received a respectable 4.5 million votes, was among a wide platform of Roman Catholic and Protestant leaders addressing an 80,000-strong interfaith rally in Manila last Friday. It called for the peaceful ousting of Mrs Arroyo.
Mr Villanueva’s challenge to Mrs Arroyo to “face the reality of her own collapse into immorality, and abuse of authority that made her continuance in office untenable” received rapturous approval from the crowds. He is now marked out as an effective presidential contender in 2010.
Despite widespread public dissatisfaction with President Arroyo, such is her grip on the military and the country’s economy that it is likely she will see out the remainder of her term until June 2010.
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