Asia | The Philippines
A dangerous game
Gloria Arroyo faces down allegations of corruption
Jun 16th 2005 | manila
GLORIA ARROYO, the president of the Philippines, claims to be focusing on economic reform "like a laser beam". If so, she is alone: the rest of the country is transfixed by the various scandals besetting her and her family. Last week, a tape recording surfaced in which Mrs Arroyo appears to be encouraging an election commissioner to rig last year's presidential poll on her behalf. A few days before that, several witnesses at a Senate hearing had accused her husband, son and brother-in-law of receiving kickbacks from kingpins of jueteng, a popular but illegal form of gambling akin to a lottery. This latter charge is particularly incendiary, since Mrs Arroyo first became president when her predecessor, Joseph Estrada, was deposed by protesters who claimed that he, too, was pocketing jueteng lucre. The president's critics are now calling for another round of "people power" protests to topple her too.
Mrs Arroyo and her relatives deny all the allegations against them. It is the president's voice in the recording, a spokesman says, but her words have been doctored to create the impression of impropriety. The former intelligence agent who disseminated the tape says he got it from a surveillance expert in the army. But the expert in question denies this. He also claims the president's accusers held him hostage in a Catholic seminary in an attempt to bully him into corroborating their story. The police, whom answer to the president, are hunting for the whistle-blowing spy, who they accuse of sedition. The House of Representatives is due to start hearings next week to grapple with the matter.
Meanwhile, the Senate's hearings on jueteng are also generating plenty of theatrics. So far, several witnesses, who described themselves as bagmen for jueteng bosses, have told the senators that they helped deliver cash to various officials and politicians, including the president's relatives. One claimed to have personally handed bribes to Juan Miguel Arroyo, the president's son, and Ignacio Arroyo, her brother-in-law. Both Messrs Arroyo, who reject all these claims as politically motivated, are suing their accusers for libel.
The president, meanwhile, is trying to maintain as dignified a pose as possible. She has instructed both the justice department and the ombudsman to conduct independent inquiries into the jueteng allegations against her relatives, and to "let the chips fall where they may". She has also ordered the police to crack down on jueteng. They duly claim to have eliminated the game from Luzon, the Philippines' most populous island, to general incredulity.
Mrs Arroyo has weathered such storms before. In 2001, she faced down angry mobs protesting Mr Estrada's ouster, and, by extension, her elevation from vice-president to president. In the run-up to last year's presidential elections, one of her rivals, Panfilo Lacson, accused Jose Miguel Arroyo, the "first gentleman", of amassing an enormous political slush fund under a false name. But the charge, which Mr Arroyo denied, did not move the electorate: in the end, Mrs Arroyo easily beat both Mr Lacson and Fernando Poe, a matinee idol. Mr Poe's supporters also resorted to street demonstrations, but these fizzled out too.
The current protests seem equally limp. Only about 1,000 demonstrators showed up at a rally outside Congress on June 15th—a far cry from the hundreds of thousands who marched against Mr Estrada in 2001. The death of Poe last year deprived the president's opponents of their most popular leader. Nor is the opposition strong enough to pass the impeachment motion that some legislators would like.
On the other hand, Mrs Arroyo never quite managed to dispel doubts about her legitimacy during her first three years as president, while serving out the remainder of Mr Estrada's term. Her election victory last year was supposed to quell such questions once and for all, and pave the way for a more confident and vigorous administration. Now, one year into her six-year term, doubts are resurfacing.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "A dangerous game"
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