Protesters want Arroyo out

MANILA, Philippines — An estimated 5,000 protesters demanded yesterday that Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo step down, marking the biggest anti-government rally since allegations surfaced that she fixed last year's election and her family received gambling kickbacks.

The government has denied the allegations, saying they are part of a plot to unseat Arroyo. Police nationwide and soldiers in the capital, Manila, were on full alert against a power grab in a country with a history of coup attempts.

Arroyo's popularity — already at the lowest level since that for late dictator Ferdinand Marcos — has taken more hits since the release of an alleged wiretapped conversation between Arroyo and an election official to fix the 2004 vote, and claims of payoffs to Arroyo's son and brother-in-law from illegal gambling operators.

Arroyo has been battling poverty, rising prices, a fiscal deficit and corruption. She has said "purveyors of instability and intrigue" were undermining her efforts to revive the economy.

She said she was focused "like a laser beam" on reforms "to turn this economy around, and no one will deter me from that mission."

"We cannot resolve our differences by tossing out the democratic process just because we are not getting our way."

In a rare show of solidarity, a wide spectrum of anti-Arroyo groups, including opposition politicians and rival leftists, joined forces in yesterday's rally dubbed a "National Day of Mourning." Police estimated that 5,000 people participated.

"The rally for me can be seen as a measure of how far or how widespread the disgust is for Arroyo and her isolation," said Rep. Teddy Casino of the left-wing Bayan Muna party.

Casino said his party sought Arroyo's ouster but opposed a coup d'etat, a military junta or a "palace coup."

"This is the early stage of the struggle for the eventual regime change that is expected," he said. However, talk of "an imminent downfall is not accurate," Casino said.

Last week, a witness testifying in a Senate hearing on the illegal numbers game called jueteng claimed she paid off Arroyo's son and brother-in-law, members of the House of Representatives.

The two men have denied the charges. Arroyo's son has filed a libel suit against the witness.

To show she was not protecting her family, Arroyo immediately ordered government investigators to look into the allegations and file charges if warranted, saying her kin are not above the law.

On Friday, the dismissed deputy head of the justice department's investigation agency claimed he was the source of an audio recording that purportedly has Arroyo talking to an election official about fixing last year's election to gain a 1 million-vote margin against her closest rival, Fernando Poe Jr. Poe died in December after a stroke.

Samuel Ong, former deputy director of the National Bureau of Investigation, said disgruntled military intelligence agents gave him the "mother of all tapes" containing the alleged wiretaps.

Officials said the recording was doctored to show alleged wrongdoing by the president.

"In the first place," Ong said, "our constitution says that the (Commission on Elections) is an independent constitutional body to ensure peaceful, orderly and honest election. Now here comes somebody outside this constitutional body ... not only asking but directing him to do something."