Thousands of protesters clashed with police as Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, seeking to reassure a country battered by economic woes and criminal gangs, set a target yesterday of winning the war on poverty within a decade and vowed to arrest kingpins of corruption and drugs.
In her second state of the nation address, Arroyo outlined her vision for a classless society with a heavy emphasis on creating and improving job opportunities. She tried to woo jittery foreign investors, calling the Philippines the third-best performing economy in Asia and the best in Southeast Asia.
Referring to a US military exercise aimed at helping Philippine troops wipe out the brutal Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist group, Arroyo said the global anti-terror coalition has helped break what she called "the cycle of terrorism and criminality."
PHOTO: AFP
She said Washington will conduct more exercises to boost the poorly trained Philippine military's capabilities. About 1,000 US troops are in the Philippines as part of the current six-month exercise, which ends July 31. Abu Sayyaf has been loosely linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
"We shall enhance our strategic relationship with the US through continuing training exercises to sharpen our soldiers' capabilities to move and communicate, to fix and finish off their targets," Arroyo said.
Arroyo also urged the Congress to urgently pass an anti-terrorism bill now under consideration.
With its long-term goals and plea for patience, the speech sounded like a campaign launch for the 2004 presidential election.
Arroyo asked for an end to political divisiveness, saying the government needs strong institutions and bureaucracy to implement policy.
"Where we have fallen short of achieving what we intended, it has not been from misdirection or a lack of trying," she said.
She also took a swipe at now-jailed predecessor, Joseph Estrada -- who last week said the Philippines is dying slowly and accused Arroyo of weak leadership -- by claiming the country would have been bankrupt within a few months if the former action-film star hadn't left office early.
In a statement published in newspapers yesterday, Estrada said there was no way Arroyo could gloss over the country's political and economic ills and the worsening law-and-order problems that have driven away investors.
"Even statistics and figures, no matter how cleverly manipulated, cannot hide wretched lives or resurrect failed businesses," Estrada said.
Outside Congress, thousands of left-wing protesters -- including many who backed Arroyo's rise to power -- clashed with police as the demonstrators called for her resignation and demanded land and an end to the US counterterrorism exercises.
Two layers of riot police kept the protesters several blocks away from the House of Representatives, where Arroyo arrived by helicopter to deliver her speech.
At one point, some of the protesters burned her effigy and tried to remove iron railings used as a roadblock. Backed by water cannons, riot police charged the unruly crowd with truncheons. Stones rained down, injuring several people and at least four photographers.
Protest leaders claimed 10 of their companions were arrested. The protesters left the area after the brief clash, leaving a few thousand pro-Estrada supporters, who were not involved in the scuffle.
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