Word: arroyos
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Arroyo's enemies say they are no longer content just to see her step down. If she did so, her Vice President and party colleague Noli de Castro, a former news broadcaster new to public office, would become President. But that would not bring the sort of change those opposed to Arroyo want to see. That may be why there's so much talk of revolution and a new political structure for the Philippines: a national governing council, a civilian junta, or a strongman general and a politician ruling in tandem. When Arroyo goes, her enemies say, the country...
...Some of the groups challenging Arroyo have been against every Philippine President for decades. The left has called for revolution since the 1960s; it has representatives in Congress, but is also linked to the 10,000-strong guerrilla New People's Army, which fights the military in the Philippine countryside. Since Cory Aquino's time, disgruntled military men have attempted numerous coups?the most serious in 1989, when soldiers took over Manila's business district for more than a week...
...chief threat to Arroyo, however, comes from her political opposition, which includes parties that currently share power along with influential individuals out in the cold: Estrada's allies; Poe's supporters; the Marcos family; and even Arroyo's former Executive Secretary Renato de Villa, a onetime armed forces Chief of Staff and Defense Secretary who last week called for a "truth commission" to be set up to investigate the so-called Gloriagate tape. A lot of them don't want to wait for the next presidential election, due in 2010, for a shot at power. Their main goal...
...year, Fortunato Abat, a retired general who served as armed forces Chief of Staff and Defense Secretary under President Fidel Ramos, wrote a paper arguing that the country should be run by a junta composed of military men and civilians. When Abat distributed his paper to generals serving under Arroyo, the government said it was going to charge him with sedition. But when columnists wrote that Abat, 80, was just a harmless old man exercising his freedom of speech, the administration backed down. Abat didn't, however, and he's not restricting his thoughts to the word processor anymore...
...Almost all the groups hoping to topple Arroyo have a similar plan, with one significant variation: who will be in the junta and, most crucial, who will head it. That lack of agreement, and the fact that there's no obvious public support for such a move, has been to Arroyo's advantage?for now. But, warns De Villa, who has launched his own reform movement, "there is a gathering political storm that will affect all of us." So far, it's a mud storm, but Arroyo will have to work hard to keep from getting buried...