Palace: No people power forthcoming

Malacañang expressed confidence yesterday that a people power revolt against President Arroyo is not imminent, despite the allegations against her and her family.

"I don’t see it coming because, again, I would like to reiterate that the President has not done anything illegal," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said yesterday.

Bunye also said it was irrelevant to talk about a declaration of martial law or emergency powers for the President, as the situation does not warrant such drastic action, even if these are powers the President could invoke as stated in the 1987 Constitution.

He denied allegations by the opposition that the President’s allies in the House of Representatives are stonewalling her impeachment, which the President’s critics said could trigger mass public upheaval to remove her from office.

"The impeachment process is already ongoing and we will just let this process take its due course," Bunye said.

"The President is very clear and she knows she has not violated any law and, I think, with that frame of mind, she is very much prepared," he added, referring to a possible impeachment trial at the Senate.

Two presidents have been ousted through peaceful people power revolutions based at EDSA: the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in February 1986 and Mrs. Arroyo’s predecessor, Joseph Estrada, in January 2001.

A third people power-style ouster was launched against Mrs. Arroyo by Estrada’s supporters in May 2001, four months after she assumed office, but it failed.

Mrs. Arroyo is being accused of cheating her way to victory in the 2004 election and benefiting from jueteng payoffs along with some members of her family.

Former President Corazon Aquino, a faction of the Liberal Party led by Senate President Franklin Drilon, the Makati Business Club, the opposition and other sectors have called for the President’s resignation, along with 10 members of Mrs. Arroyo’s Cabinet who quit their posts last month and asked her to do the same.

But the resignation calls did not snowball and seemed to lose momentum after the Catholics Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said constitutional procedure must be observed in removing and replacing the President.

Mrs. Arroyo is also standing her ground, saying that all grievances against her must be taken before Congress, where she can and will defend herself.

The President said that while the world celebrated the 1986 EDSA revolution and tolerated EDSA II, it will no longer accept another people power-style ouster because such a revolution would only make a mockery of the country’s democracy.