Word: arroyos
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...each stop, she is greeted by entire village populations cheering and waving with a passion normally reserved for holy days. Her mother grew up not far away. Arroyo knows the local dialect?one of six languages she speaks?and remembers the steps of the traditional dances she's invited to join. She's happiest on these trips, she says repeatedly. And she does seem looser than she is around the palace or in press conferences and at official functions. Her frequent reminders that she's the first President to visit these towns?shrugging off two previous helicopter crashes and "risking...
...Arroyo revels in the details of the job, describing herself as "a plodder, not a highflyer." Her staff have come to expect her customary late-night phone calls demanding updates on even the most picayune government projects: bridge repairs, toilet construction, the delivery of a bulldozer. After one year in office, she says, "by and large, I'm on track." Yet Arroyo, like the Philippines at the moment, is fluttering in an uncertain sky, trying to set a course but too often buffeted by forces that appear far more powerful than she. Poverty reigns, and government programs are hampered...
...Malacanang is an elaborate place, a shamelessly opulent expanse of wood-paneled walls, gold-gilded mirrors, massive chandeliers and bulletproof windows (glass by Ferdinand Marcos; the rest, straight-up Imelda). Arroyo, who always dresses for the occasion, is wearing a deep purple suit, sitting up toward the edge of a couch with her hands in her lap. She's short, of course, under five feet, an easy target for people who attack her leadership by mocking her size (typical comment: "her policies are as diminutive...
...saved her presidency, and quite possibly her life, but it further cemented a political role for the military?no small danger in a country where talk of a coup is always in the air. Her key backer, General Angelo Reyes, the army's Chief of Staff, was installed as Arroyo's Defense Secretary. And though she insists the military is "truly professional, not political," she's been careful not to cross them. With the U.S. opening a second front, in Mindanao, in its war on terrorism, the military's role in the Philippines is sure to grow, enhancing the prestige...
...bind from which she has been unable to extricate herself and one that is crippling her presidency. She has been "tentative in pursuing reforms," says one of her congressional opponents, Senator Rodolfo Biazon. Arroyo is fearful, he believes, of upsetting her already rankled ex-backers. One of those is Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, the outspoken prelate who has wielded the church's immense moral authority to pummel Presidents into line for almost two decades. Earlier this month, Sin released an ominous statement declaring the state of politics was "far from ideal"; it didn't directly point the finger at MalacaNang...