Tens of thousands of Filipinos marched through the financial district of Manila on Wednesday demanding that President Gloria Arroyo resign over allegations that she tried to rig last year’s presidential election.
The 30 000-strong crowd was by far the biggest anti-Arroyo demonstration since the crisis erupted last month with the circulation of a tape recording of a conversation between Arroyo and an electoral official in which, the opposition alleges, she asked for her vote tally to be increased.
One of the protest organisers, Wilson Fortaleza, described the march as ”a preview for a bigger storm”. But analysts say the protests will have to be at least 10 times bigger before they become a viable ”people power” movement that threatens Arroyo. She has admitted calling the official, describing it as a ”lapse in judgement”, but denies any wrongdoing.
Arroyo still controls the Congress while the influential military, police and Catholic bishops remain neutral.
The protesters were mainly traditional Arroyo enemies — leftist militants, members of non-governmental organisations and supporters of her former foes, Joseph Estrada and Fernando Poe Jnr — and paid demonstrators.
There was, however, a conspicuous absence of the middle class, who provided the backbone of the Philippines’ previous two people-power revolts, against Ferdinand Marcos in 1986 and Mr Estrada in 2001.
”Gloria Out!”, ”Bye-bye Gloria!” and ”Resign now!” were just a few of the slogans chanted by the marchers and supporters in the surrounding skyscrapers, who tossed confetti down on to the demonstration as a sign of solidarity.
”Gloria has got to go,” one marcher, Franciso Delgardo of the New Patriotic Alliance, said.
”She cheated her way into power and now she’s lost the confidence of the nation. This country will be stuck in deadlock until she goes.”
Arroyo did not comment on the march, but the environment secretary, Michael Defensor, said she would not be swayed. ”She is standing resolute amid calls for her resignation,” he told reporters. ”She will not stand down … even if today’s rally sees half a million people taking to the streets.”
Speculation is mounting that Arroyo might take seriously a proposal by the former president Fidel Ramos to amend the Constitution, known as the charter, to convert the Philippines into a parliamentary democracy. But opposition leaders claim she is just using the concept to cling to power.
”They are trying to confuse us,” said the actor Susan Roces, the widow of Poe Jr, a movie star who died in December after losing the presidential race. ”They are making many proposals, including charter change, to remain in power,” she told the crowd.
Another march is planned for Sunday, but analysts say a clear direction will only become apparent after Arroyo’s state of the nation address on July 25, which is when the opposition is also expected to start impeachment proceedings against her. – Guardian Unlimited Â