Coup feared as embattled leader clings to power [View All]

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July 09, 2005

Coup feared as embattled leader clings to power
By Richard Lloyd Parry

PRESIDENT Arroyo was fighting for political survival in the Philippines last night after ministers, businessmen and political figures called for her to quit over election-rigging claims.

The country’s senior military officer warned his men to resist calls for a military coup and America cautioned against “unconstitutional” measures.

Mrs Arroyo, however, gave a radio address in which she refused to go. “I was duly elected to uphold the constitution and ensure that the institutions of the nation were strengthened, not weakened,” she said.

Calls for her resignation were led by Cory Aquino, who saw off Ferdinand Marcos, the former dictator, to become the Philippines’ first democratically elected president in 1986. “I ask the President . . . to make this supreme sacrifice to spare our country from the violence that threatens it,” she said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1686356,00.html