Word: arroyos
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...Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, it should have been a good day. On June 26, the devoutly religious Philippine President met with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, giving him a copy of a newly signed law banning the death penalty in the Philippines and earning from him a heartwarming "Well done." That sort of endorsement is political platinum in the Philippines, where more than 80% of the population is Catholic. But Arroyo's opponents back home weren't impressed. That same day they filed an impeachment complaint against her, and by week's end had submitted three more. So much...
...charges against Arroyo are similar to those made during last year's tumultuous impeachment drive: allegations that Arroyo cheated in the May 2004 presidential election, used money from illegal gambling in her campaign, suppressed political dissent and condoned the killings of journalists and leftist leaders. Arroyo has denied the charges and her allies in Congress defeated the previous impeachment effort, but the President remains badly bruised. A March poll found that just 29% of respondents were satisfied with her performance. The economy, though showing modest gains in recent months, is still shaky and too dependent on the $10 billion...
With the Philippines transfixed by the ongoing power struggles in Manila between President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and critics demanding her resignation, it's easy to forget that the country is also ensnared in another conflict?against insurgent communist rebels and Islamic radicals in its remote provinces. On March 27, after weeks of relative calm, an explosion ripped through a Catholic-run cooperative store on the predominantly Muslim southern island of Jolo, killing nine and wounding 20. Authorities said the bomb's construction and its detonation via cell phone pointed to Abu Sayyaf, a roving band of al-Qaeda-linked terrorists...
...bombings have given new urgency to the government's drive to pass a controversial antiterrorism law. "Terror never sleeps," Arroyo told legislators after the Jolo attack, calling for measures to "rid our country and the world of this grave threat." The law would allow authorities to detain terror suspects for up to 18 days without charges. (Currently, police are required to release uncharged suspects within 36 hours.) Despite pressure from the U.S., the Philippines is the only Southeast Asian nation without such a law. But Arroyo's already-besieged government may have difficulty overcoming opposition from human-rights activists...
...Uprising It is unfortunate and ironic that just as TIME's Anthony Spaeth offered an appraisal, in "Glory Days" [Feb. 27], of the 1986 People Power revolution that toppled the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the world witnessed truncheon-wielding police trying to break up rallies for the overthrow of the Arroyo government. Your story quoted an official report on our national flaws, describing Filipinos as "passive, unreflective, undisciplined and prone to loyalty toward personalities rather than institutions or ideals." Seen in another light, we might be regarded as resilient, spontaneous, flexible and sentimental. TIME credited People Power as the Filipino contribution...