Blue-blood Arroyo seeks elusive Philippine unity
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-06-30 15:12

After being thrust into the Philippine presidency in 2001, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo prayed for a strong mandate this year to dispel doubts about her legitimacy and empower her efforts to reform the unruly Asian country.

She didn't quite get what she wanted.

The diminutive, devoutly Catholic 57-year-old economist beat her main rival in May 10 elections by only about three percent of the vote and already is being painted as a "bogus" president by an opposition that says she cheated.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo smiles while taking her oath as the 14th leader of the country in Cebu city in central Philippines June 30, 2004. Arroyo began a new six-year term on Wednesday, promising to use her presidency to drive through tough economic reform that would hurt the rich to benefit millions of Filipino poor. At right is holding the bible is her husband Miguel. [Reuters]

Fernando Poe Jr, an action movie hero and political novice who came close to unseating her, may now ride into the sunset. But doubts about Arroyo's ability to unite the country and steer it out of Asia's economic slow lane will be hard to dispel.

A speech on Wednesday ahead of the oath-taking ceremony was suffused with appeals for national unity.

"I offer my hand and I hope it will be taken with the same faith," Arroyo told the crowd at a wind-swept Manila park.

"Our ability to unify will be judged by our ability to come together under a common vision that will erase the divisions that hold us back as a nation."

Arroyo, the daughter of former President Diosdado Macapagal, has her first democratic mandate to lead the largely Catholic country of 84 million after assuming the presidency in January 2001 in the nation's second "people power" uprising in which her predecessor Joseph Estrada was ousted.

Now that she is barred by the constitution from another term, optimists hope Arroyo can embark without fear on programmes to crack down on corruption and ease entrenched poverty that feeds social division and insurgencies by communist and Muslim rebels.

But it is hardly a convincing mandate and she has yet to shake off perceptions that she is just another aloof "illustrado" descendant of Spanish colonialists who has little real desire to shake up the status quo.

The problems go far deeper than the need for a charismatic president. Analysts say there is a need for a fundamental change in a political culture that prizes personalities above parties and where kickbacks are seen as an acceptable perk of office.

Politicians' pledges to serve the national interest are taken with a pinch of salt by Filipinos who have seen neighbouring economies such as Thailand and Malaysia power ahead while crucial reform bills languish in the Philippine Congress.

"It never ceases to amaze me how divisive politics can be and, unfortunately, I think they seem to be getting@divisive," said Stephen Wilford, Southeast Asia analyst for the Control Risks consultancy.

GOD ON HER SIDE

Arroyo's first three years in office and her privileged upbringing suggest to many that she is not the iconoclastic leader the country needs to break from the past.

Running through the halls of the presidential palace as a child gave her a taste for power but cost her the common touch that Filipinos love.

"Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has been showered with blessings," wrote columnist Ana Marie Pamintuan. "She has the wealth and the pedigree, the brains and even, why not, the genes."

But Pamintuan added: "She knows she has an attitude problem; she knows she lacks empathy. She can't hide her boredom over small talk."

Arroyo -- a staunch backer of the US-led war on terror and an admirer of Britain's former prime minister Margaret Thatcher -- is undeniably a hard worker.

That came as a contrast to Estrada, whose "midnight" cabinet meetings were better known for drinking and gambling than policy.

In a nation steeped in religion, Arroyo goes to Mass every day and sees the hand of God in crucial decisions she has made.

Just 4 ft 11 ins (1.5 m) tall, she has a flair for theatre and ballroom dancing. She has a husband who has been dogged by graft allegations and three children, one of whom is an actor.

Close

Today's Top News     Top World News
Money Game: Rotating illusion of getting wealthy         More HIV, AIDS cases expected in Henan         EU ruling on China's market status 'unfair'         Piracy still plagues IT industry         Zeng: July 1 should be a day for celebration         Saddam to face charges in Iraq Thursday	Powell threatens Sudan with UN resolution       French-US tussles reopen NATO wounds       US to NATO: Send troops to Afghanistan faster       East Timor eyes ARF membership       Bird flu kills 4,500 chickens in Vietnam       24 die in Sierra Leone UN copter crash