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Friday February 29, 9:26 PMProtesters joined by two ex-presidents call on Arroyo to resign(Kyodo) _ Tens of thousands of Filipinos joined by two former presidents called for President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to resign on Friday amid a corruption scandal involving her husband and a close political ally.A steady stream of people, estimated by organizers at 85,000 but downplayed by police to 15,000, carried colorful banners, chanted and prayed while marching along a half-kilometer stretch of the main thoroughfare in Manila's Makati financial district. United by their calls for Arroyo to step down, democracy icon and former President Corazon Aquino shared the stage for the first time with her once bitter foe, deposed President Joseph Estrada, before a huge crowd of people who included university students, left-wing activists and office-goers. Aquino, once a staunch ally of Arroyo, chanted before a cheering crowd, "Gloria resign!" while Estrada chided Arroyo for "overstaying" in office to the applause of his loyalists. Arroyo, whose term ends in 2010, inherited the remaining years in office of Estrada's two-and-a-half year presidency and was reelected for a six-year term in 2004 in an election that was marred by vote-rigging allegations. While Aquino was catapulted to power by a so-called "people power revolution" in 1986 that ousted the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, Estrada was forced to resign by the second "people power" uprising in 2001 amid allegations of massive corruption. The loudest cheer was given to Rodolfo Noel Lozada Jr., a key witness in the Senate inquiry into the $329-million telecommunications deal between the government and Chinese company ZTE. "This movement should not be spurred by anger or loathing because once the object of loathing is gone, everyone stops again," the former government electronics communications engineer said, stressing the system of corruption should be gotten rid of and not just the leaders. The latest wave of anti-Arroyo protests were triggered by Lozada's testimony before the Senate that Arroyo's husband Jose Miguel Arroyo and her close political ally Benjamin Abalos, a former Elections Commission chief, were at one time about to receive $130 million in kickbacks from the National Broadband Network project. Arroyo, who has survived three impeachment bids and three coup plots in the last seven years of her tumultuous presidency, scrapped the contract when the scandal broke late last year and has rejected allegations her family has pocketed money from the national budget. Arroyo aides believe the recent turmoil will not weaken her, saying she still enjoys the loyalty of the top brass in the military and her allies continue to dominate the House of Representatives, which is the frontline of any impeachment attempts against the president. |
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