September 4, 2001. Copyright, 2001, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Philippines president aims to find the right medicine
By Elisabeth Ribbans

LONDON, September 4, Graphic News:  WHEN the disgraced Joseph Estrada was finally jemmied from his presidential palace earlier this year, Filipinos sent for a doctor to tend their nationÕs malady. Gloria Arroyo PhD, who was sworn in as EstradaÕs replacement on January 20, told a vast and cheering crowd that she accepted the job with a sense of Òtrepidation and aweÓ. The words were well chosen. If the doctor of economics had taken case notes they might have read: democratic institutions Ð weak; economy Ð sick; political corruption Ð endemic; serious crime Ð serious; public confidence Ð low. But as vice-president for two years, a politician for 15 and the highly educated daughter of former president Diosdado Macapagal, Arroyo was in a better position than most to understand the frailties of her country.

Born in Manila in 1947, Gloria Macapagal was an outstanding student at her Catholic high school before heading off to WashingtonÕs Georgetown University where she was a classmate of Bill Clinton. Returning home two years later, she became a teacher and later gained her doctorate from the University of the Philippines. She married a lawyer, had three children, and shortly before her 40th birthday joined the government of Corazon Aquino, becoming undersecretary for trade and industry. Over the next decade she blazed her ascendant trail, winning election to the Senate in 1992 and achieving re-election three years later with the biggest vote in Filipino electoral history. Along the way, she introduced a raft of social and economic reforms. By the time she was elected vice president Ð in another landslide poll Ð commentators were calling petite Arroyo the most powerful woman in Asia.

A return to the presidential palace of her youth Ð where her father held office from 1961 to 1965 Ð has inevitably prompted comparisons with IndonesiaÕs President Megawati Sukarnoputri. The women were born in the same year, the daughters of popular presidents, and have come to power this year following the removal of their predecessors amid scenes of mass protest. Yet while MegawatiÕs chief qualification is considered by some to be her surname, few would question ArroyoÕs ability to grapple with the finer details of national policy.

However, in Manila it is comparisons with Estrada that matter more. Fortunately, the people have yet to find in Mrs Arroyo any resemblance to the carousing, womanizing former movie idol they elected to serve them in 1998. His Òman of the peopleÓ act played well with the crowd but his impeachment on charges of corruption and bribery was not the denouement most were seeking.

By contrast, President Arroyo is well groomed, well read and well bred. ÒPro-poor, pro-God and pro-familyÓ, she carries with her the mainly Catholic nationÕs hopes of a more upright society Ð though recent allegations (later retracted) that her husband accepted a bribe to secure a government contract were an early setback. She claims her father Ð an anti-poverty campaigner who was born in a slum and affectionately dubbed the Òpoor boy from LubaoÓ Ð as her role model. Her first act on taking power was to issue an order banning relatives from doing business with the government. Her second was to put the presidential yacht up for sale.

The signal about the style of her presidency had been sent. But what of its substance? ArroyoÕs toughest issues are the economy and the three-decades-old separatist Muslim unrest. On the latter, a major success came in August with the signing of a ceasefire agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. This leaves only the Abu Sayyaf separatist group, which in May kidnapped 20 people at a holiday resort in Palawan Province, to be pacified. Arroyo refuses to deal with the rebels, calling them Òcommon banditsÓ.

Regarding the economy, the president is pursuing privatisation and promises to connect the Philippines to the global economy through freer trade and inward investment. The languishing peso has yet to show dramatic improvement. Elections in 2004 will show whether the doctorÕs medicine has been effective.
/ENDS