Arroyo in bid to extend leadership

Updated June 12, 2009 18:39:30


She's been dubbed the most unpopular Philippine President since the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos with surveys showing half the population does not trust her leadership.

But is Gloria Arroyo planning to re-write the constitution to stay in office when her term expires next year? Last week, President Arroyo's allies in the House of Representatives approved a resolution, that many fear, is a maneouvre to scrap the charter that restricts a President to one term in office.

Presenter: Kesha West
Speakers: Mar Roxas, Philippine Senator; Dr Clarita Carlos, Philippine political analyst; Renato Reyes, Secretary-General of Bayaan

WEST :Holding banners high, thousands of Filipinos marched through the streets of Manila. Painted on their placards, a stark message for their President... "Gloria Forever... Never! The rally may have been a lot smaller than organisers had hoped for, but the message was still loud and clear, any attempts to re-write the Constitution would not be tolerated. Philippine Senator Mar Roxas joined the protesters in condemning the move by the House.

ROXAS: What our House of Representatives did in the middle of the night without due consultation and without giving full debate to this very important issue - they ram through a resolution that calls for a convening of the constituent assembly without the requisite check and balance of Senate participation. This is all so that they cna extend the term of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

WEST: Under current laws, Philippine Presidents can only serve one six year term. President Arroyo has already served nine years, after coming to office in a military-backed revolt against former President Joseph Estrada. Even if President Arroyo could run next year the chances of her getting returned to power are at best unlikely. She is trailing in the opinion polls and she and others in her administration have been plagued by accusations of corruption and electoral fraud. Rally organiser and Secretary-General of the left-wing umbrella group Bayaan, Renato Reyes is wary of the motives behind this latest move by the House.

REYES: The timing is very suspect. It comes less than a year before the 2010 elections and there is the nagging belief that the current administration wants to retain immunity from all the possible suits it will face when it steps down.

WEST: The President's Office has denied Gloria Arroyo wants to stay beyond her mandate. Dr Clarita Carlos is one of the country's most respected political analysts. She agrees it's unlikely Gloria Arroyo will seek an extension of her term.

CARLOS: The intention really is, the first one is to test it in the Supreme Court and number two is to shift to a Parliamentary system, because when you shift to a parliamentary system then you will have no notions of term limits, because a parliamentary system says for as long as you are elected as a member of parliament then you continue to be elected. Of course the suspician is Goria Arroyo, if she has the majority of her people supporting her in the house, may eventually from a member of parliament become a Prime Minister.

WEST : Still, Dr Carlos says there's very little chance this resolution passed by the President's allies in the House of Representatives will succeed.

CARLOS: For one, the time is not on their side, for another, if you read the constitution and you read the notes of the constitutional convention which drew up the 1987 Constitution, those sections were really in the spirit of a bipartisan legislature, really can you imagine you can not even change the name of the street without the Senate participation so how much more amending the constitution, so I think its an absurd claim for one.

WEST: It may very well be unlikely but should the House suceed in this move, critics say it could pave the way for it to make any changes it likes to the Constitution. Protesters have warned Wednesday's protest won't be the last. They've promised bigger street rallies in the days and weeks ahead. But Clarita Carlos says there's far better ways of getting your voice heard.

CARLOS : Unless they can change people's minds about what name to put on the ballot then that's how its going to be... no amount of rallying in the streets, shouting, and all forms of mass action can change that. Here in the Filipinos don't realise that the biggest instrument the most important instrument to have in their hands is the ballot. You want to change the face of your government then start putting their names on the ballot, its as simple as that.