Word: arroyo
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...N.P.A., which both the U.S. and the E.U. have classified as a terrorist organization, is not the only headache in Mindanao for the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. This resource-rich but lawless region is home to two other formidable armed groups. While Manila has struck a fragile cease-fire with the 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (M.I.L.F.), the country's largest Muslim rebel army, it has vowed to eradicate Abu Sayyaf, an al-Qaeda-linked outfit accused of a string of terrorist acts, including the 2004 bombing of a ferry near Manila that killed more than...
...Officials in Manila acknowledge that the N.P.A.'s resilience is largely rooted in the country's decades-long inability to improve the lives of the underprivileged. "Remove poverty, and we remove the N.P.A.," says Eduardo Ermita, a former Defense Secretary who is now Arroyo's executive secretary and one of her closest advisers. Ermita says the authorities are serious about providing education for all children, and about tackling other grievances such as corruption. "You cannot win the war through guns alone," he says. "You have to win hearts and minds...
...latest dustup came last Thursday, when the House of Representatives, controlled by Arroyo allies, outraged the opposition-led Senate by voting to convene a constituent assembly that would allow the House to push through the measure without the Senate's consent. The same day, the President appointed Reynato Puno as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, just hours after his predecessor retired-leading to speculation that his vote could swing the Court's view on charter change in Arroyo's favor...
...Supporters say the amendment would clear the legislative deadlock between the Philippines' House and Senate. But Arroyo's critics see the move as a naked power grab, noting that by invalidating current term limits, it could conceivably enable Arroyo to stay in power as Prime Minister after her term as President ends in 2010. One opposition senator, Panfilo Lacson, called last week's political maneuvering "nothing short of constitutional rape." The amendment also antagonized powerful business leaders and the country's formidable Catholic Bishops Conference, whose president, Angel Lagdameo, called the House's gambit "illegal and immoral...
...third of the public in favor of rewriting the constitution and mass protests against the plan scheduled for this week in Manila, House Speaker Jose de Venecia backed down on Saturday, inviting the Senate to join proposals for a publicly elected constitutional convention to discuss charter change. While Arroyo and her allies appear to have enough political muscle to force a vote, they may find compromise preferable to dancing alone...