President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo prepared on Monday for a new six-year term in which she plans to revive the Philippine economy, but questions over the credibility of her mandate threatened to cloud her first weeks in office.
A marathon tally by a congressional panel that ended on Sunday gave the US-trained economist a narrow victory over film star rival Fernando Poe in May 10 elections, paving the way for her official proclamation later this week.
"I think from day one, there's not going to be a honeymoon for the president," Arroyo spokesman Mike Defensor told reporters. "It's going to be a continuing fight."
PHOTO: EPA
Hundreds of steel spikes appeared on roads across the Philippine capital early yesterday, flattening the tires of more than 100 vehicles, in acts of sabotage that officials blamed on political tension.
At least 360 spikes -- fashioned from 10cm nails and concealed in paper wrappings -- were recovered from all over metropolitan Manila yesterday after they blew out the tires of at least 128 vehicles, said Ligaya Damaso of the Metro Manila Development Authority.
Defense Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the incident was part of "destabilization efforts ... by troublemakers" following last month's elections.
Metropolitan Manila police chief Ricardo de Leon said police have no suspects yet, but that there was a general impression that the incident was politically motivated and that the perpetrators wanted to create anarchy.
The opposition, which says Arroyo cheated her way to victory, can still contest the result in Congress in the next few days or take the battle to the Supreme Court. But her inauguration was certain given her majority in Congress, analysts said.
"The only thing that they can do at this point is outside the Supreme Court and the Congress," said political analyst Joel Rocamora, referring to planned protests by some opposition groups and rumors of coup attempts against the government. "And even that, I don't think they have the capability at this point."
The military is on alert for possible unrest, with memories still fresh of an attempted coup by army officers last July and the "people power" protests that turfed out Poe's friend Joseph Estrada in 2001, paving the way for Arroyo's first term.
Police and military bomb disposal experts defused two bombs in Manila on Sunday, one in the canteen of the defense department and the other outside the interior department, officials said, adding that they did not know who planted the explosives.
Opposition politicians have said Arroyo, 57, will be a bogus president unless she agrees to re-open election returns to check what they said was huge cheating behind her win by 12.9 million votes to Poe's 11.8 million, a three percent margin.
"I think we have succeeded in telling the sordid story of this fraudulent election," opposition Senate leader Edgardo Angara said. "She will have a formal proclamation but it will be a fractured mandate, almost an incredible mandate."
Rocamora said the opposition had managed to raise sufficient doubts over the election to undermine Arroyo's mandate, making it important for her to make a strong start in key areas such as electoral reform and cutting the huge budget deficit.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS