The political temperature rose in the Philippines yesterday as President Gloria Macapagal Arro-yo's lead over an action-movie hero shrank and the slow vote count fanned accusations of cheating and fears of destabilization.
Police deployed a 1,000-strong anti-riot force yesterday around the Malacanang presidential complex, ready to break up protests by supporters of Arroyo's rivals in the May 10 elections. An unofficial tally by the independent watchdog, National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL), showed Arroyo's lead over matinee idol Fernando Poe shrinking to just 4 percent as of Friday -- 41 percent to 37 percent, with the remainder split among three other candidates.
Arroyo was leading Poe by 14 percent on Monday.
NAMFREL, whose "quick count" of the ballots has mirrored the official result in past elections, said it expects to count 60 percent of the ballots by Saturday morning.
"It is sad that 11 days after election day, it is still unclear who has won," said political strategist Angelito Banayo, who is also a spokesman for Senator Panfilo Lacson, a former national police chief running third in the unofficial count.
Banayo warned the slow count could actually fuel political instability, giving some groups an excuse to claim they were cheated and take their cause to the streets.
The two houses of Congress will resume a joint session on Monday to start the official vote tally in the presidential and vice presidential race and hope to proclaim winners early next month.
Analysts said all elected officials from the president down to town councilors should take their oaths of office by June 30 or the country could spiral into a constitutional crisis and invite a military intervention.
"Congress should declare a winner before June 12," political analyst Earl Parreno said.
"There are so many potential dangers lurking around as the count drags on. There are groups waiting in the wings to take advantage of the situation," he said.
Parreno said Congress has a tough job of finishing its official count in a week's time to dispel a public perception that the elections were dirty and not credible. Otherwise, whoever emerges the winner will face the same legitimacy problems.
"There will be another six years of destabilization unless the entire electoral process is proven clean and honest," he said.
Only Raul Roco, a former education secretary in Arroyo's Cabinet who is running fifth and last in unofficial vote count, has conceded defeat, congratulating Arroyo on her imminent victory.
Her three other rivals, including television evangelist Eddie Villanueva, have refused to give up and accused Arroyo's camp of having cheated in the polls.
Last Wednesday, Poe went on a two-day trip to the southern island of Mindanao, declaring himself the winner.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
RSS