GMA thanks nation, vows healing

CEBU CITY — President Arroyo thanked Filipinos yesterday for giving her a full six-year mandate and vowed to work for national healing.

Reiterating her call for national unity and reconciliation, the President admitted that the hard part for her would come after her proclamation.

The President flew to Lahug City in Cebu, where she sought the intercession of Providence. She renewed her prayers for opposition lawmakers to finally see the light and drop their persistent efforts to block her proclamation as the winner in the May 10 presidential election.

The President attended a special Mass last night at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, where she served as principal sponsor at the golden wedding anniversary of outgoing Gov. Pablo Garcia and his wife, Judge Esperanza Garcia.

"Thank you and congratulations," she said via text message to Koalisyon ng Katapatan at Karanasan sa Kinabukasan (K-4) media bureau chief Cerge Remonde after he congratulated her on her victory. "Now, let us pray for the plenary," referring to the plenary session of Congress before which the canvass results will be reported.

"To be accused of cheating must be a hurting experience — even for a seasoned politician like the President," Remonde said. "That’s why, maybe, she felt we have to pray for (the plenary)."

"We have seen how the President has been savaged by the opposition during the canvassing," he said. "The opposition threw everything, including the proverbial kitchen sink, and she just had to bear everything."

Supporters of Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) presidential bet Fernando Poe Jr. — who have warned of a people power revolt — claim their candidate was cheated out of some two million votes in the May 10 presidential election and say their fraud claims are being ignored.

"I thank the people for their support, forbearance and vigilance," Mrs. Arroyo said in a statement. The official tally was announced Sunday following a bitter six-week vote count by the 22-member joint canvassing committee.

The President said she would "wait patiently and let the constitutional process run its course."

While in Lahug City, the President witnessed the signing of a formal agreement for the construction of a $250-million thermal power project by the Korea Electric Power Co. (KEPPCO), which will supply power to the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid.

The KEPPCO power project will be the country’s first ever "merchant power plant," in which KEPPCO takes all the risks in putting up the facility without any sovereign guarantee from the government.

Special ‘thanks’

Earlier in the day, the President also openly acknowledged that she "owed" her victory at the polls to the people of Ilocos Sur and gifted the province with a P20-million "initial" fund release for infrastructure projects.

Before delivering her thank-you speech in Vigan, Ilocos Sur, Mrs. Arroyo swore in the newly elected officials of the province, including Rep. Salacnib Baterina, Vice Gov. Deogracias Savellano, provincial board members and various municipal officials. She said the P20-million release is part of the province’s share from tobacco tax revenues as mandated by Republic Act 7171 authored by Ilocos Sur governor-elect Luis "Chavit" Singson in 1987, during Singson’s tenure as a congressman.

Senate President Franklin Drilon said he expected the proclamation to come later this week, and Mrs. Arroyo’s office said the oath-taking will take place in Manila on June 30, followed by a party in Cebu, the second largest city where she got most votes.

"This is a sad time in the history of our country," Poe’s party said in a statement. "What the majority in Congress has done is to abort the truth in the womb of our sacred electoral process."

It said pro-Arroyo lawmakers used their superior numbers in Congress to prevent the opposition from presenting evidence of electoral fraud.

The opposition said it will question the committee’s report on the count later this week. It also could file a protest, after the proclamation, to the Supreme Court election tribunal, though that likely would take years to resolve.

"This has been the most contentious canvassing perhaps in Philippine history," Speaker Jose de Venecia said.

The final tally had Arroyo with 12,905,808 votes and Poe with 11,782,232, a difference of 1,123,576. Three other candidates were well behind.

In recent weeks, opposition lawmakers and lawyers alleged that several certificates of canvass (COCs) appeared to have been altered to rob Poe of up to 2 million votes. They doggedly demanded that voluminous vote records from small villages be opened to ensure against fraud.

Rule of law, reconciliation

Meanwhile, Mrs. Arroyo said, "we will combine the rule of law and reconciliation process to consolidate our nation and prepare to meet tough times ahead."

"The Filipino people have spoken and let us give room for unity and solidarity," she said, stressing that a "valiant fight was fought" and that both opposition legislators and her supporters should be commended.

"A valiant fight was fought and both sides are to be commended. I am not taking Congress for granted as the proclamation has to be hurdled amidst contentious debates," she said.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said, "we know that the President has always been extending her hand of unity and reconciliation to all the parties for as long as the parties are willing to work within the democratic process. It’s up to the other party to accept this invitation. I believe that acceptance by the opposition will redound to the benefit of the Filipino people."

Two opposition legislators walked out of the count in protest over alleged cheating just before the tally was completed on Sunday.

Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen, one of those who walked out, said they would continue to challenge the committee report on Arroyo’s victory when the confirmation debate begins in Congress on Wednesday.

Jose Virgilio Bautista, the other lawmaker who walked out, said that although they would likely be out-voted again by the Arroyo-controlled Congress, "at least we will have a larger audience" to make accusations of fraud.

Financial markets, which were spooked by Poe’s candidacy and election-related violence, were expected to recover Monday. Poe is the country’s most popular actor, but his lack of education and experience alarmed the business community.

Tough times ahead?

The President prepares for a term in which she plans to revive the Philippine economy, but questions over the credibility of her mandate threatened to cloud her first weeks in office.

"I think from day one, there’s not going to be a honeymoon for the President," Mike Defensor, Palace campaign spokesman told television. "It’s going to be a continuing fight."

"I think we have succeeded in telling the sordid story of this fraudulent election," opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara told Reuters. "She will have a formal proclamation but it will be a fractured mandate, almost an incredible mandate."

Political analyst Joel Rocamora said the opposition managed to raise sufficient doubts over the election to undermine Arroyo’s mandate, making it important for her to make a strong start in key areas such as electoral reform and cutting the huge budget deficit.

Analysts said markets were taking such grand pledges with a large pinch of salt, and were more focused on the composition of the new cabinet and to see whether the government would be disciplined enough to cut debt dependency.

"The event itself of the confirmation by the Congress is not really the focus. It’s more looking beyond that to see what she can do to say that this time it’s really going to be different," said David Fernandez, head of Asia sovereign research at JP Morgan Chase. "People are more focused on the discipline than any populist plans."

Markets gave a muted response to Arroyo’s widely expected election win. Manila stocks rose just 0.32 percent, while the peso gained only slightly from a record low of 56.45 to the dollar, trading at 56.27 by midday.

Raising living standards for the 40 percent of Filipinos who live on a few dollars a day is made difficult by a debt burden worth around 80 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) that eats up a third of state revenues in interest payments alone.

Possible unrest

Meanwhile, the military is on alert for possible unrest, with memories still fresh of an attempted coup by army officers last July and the "people power" protests that turfed out Poe’s friend Joseph Estrada in 2001, paving the way for Mrs. Arroyo’s ascension to the presidency.

Police and military bomb disposal experts defused two bombs in Manila on Sunday, one in the canteen of the Department of National Defense (DND) and the other outside the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), officials said, adding that they did not know who planted the explosives.

Hours after the vote count finished, men in motorcycles scattered spikes on major thoroughfares in Metro Manila, blocking traffic and causing some 132 vehicles to have flat tires.

Police said the incident was meant to cause disorder and chaos and that it could possibly be linked to the congressional count.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz is still seemingly unconvinced about the credibility of the canvassing result. Cruz said the elections cause many doubts among many people in many places adding that the political exercise supposed to bring unity and hope is now causing disharmony and gloom.

"This: The truth has a way of outing itself. It has a life of its own. In due course, it reveals itself. In due time, it becomes known," Cruz, former president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said.

He said the last elections may be loaded with deep pain on the part of the opposition. They may even besiege the administration with much anxiety, or cause uncertainty among the ordinary citizens, he said.

About two weeks after the elections Poe, went to see Cruz at the archbishop’s palace here for "spiritual guidance," but the meeting was off-limits to media. - Eva Visperas, Artemio Dumlao, Teddy Molina, Marvin Sy, Marichu Villanueva, AFP, AP, Reuters