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Southeast Asia
Arroyo foes on path to victory
2007-05-19
Opponents of President Gloria Arroyo are winning key local posts, officials said yesterday, as the vote tally showed Arroyo allies also losing ground in the crucial race for 12 Senate seats.

Even as the slow, manual count of the May 14 elections continued, violence raged with the wife of a mayoral candidate wounded and her assailant killed in a shoot-out in the volatile northern province of Abra. In the capital Manila, former police chief Alfredo Lim,78, was poised to take the post of mayor after his opponent, pro-Arroyo candidate Ali Atienza, conceded, saying Lim had an insurmountable lead.

In the Philippine financial district of Makati Arroyo’s arch-nemesis, incumbent Mayor Jejomar “Jojo” Binay, was declared the winner after the election commission count showed he had soundly beaten his rival, pro-Arroyo candidate and movie star Lito Lapid. Even in the southern city of General Santos, the vote tally showed key Arroyo bet, world superfeatherweight boxing champion, Manny Pacquiao, as likely to lose his bid for a congressional seat to an anti-Arroyo rival despite Pacquiao’s huge popularity.

More than 70 per cent of the 45 million eligible voters turned out on Monday to cast their ballots in midterm elections for thousands of local and provincial posts, the entire 275-seat House of Representatives and half the 24-seat Senate.
Posted by:Fred

#3  Interesting observation, Chuck, please feel free to expound. I think that in the case of the Philippines, there is an incumbent colonialism that might be far more to blame. The early Catholic church delegated huge land grants to those Spaniards or high blood natives who would dedicate themselves (read: tithe), to the church.

As with Mexico and many other Spanish colonies, this resulted in well-over 90% of the wealth concentrating into the hands of much less than 10% of the population. Far be it from Marcos to challenge such a cozy arrangement with those who held the real power. Neither Cory Aquino nor Gloria Macapagal Arroyo could possibly break this iron clad contract, especially not in a nation so close to theocracy whereby even divorce is illegal.

Until there is some sort of reform and revocation of unduly allocated property rights in the Philippines, few of the toiling masses will feel any motivation to uplift themselves if the elite manage to rise even higher while riding upon the peons' sweat-stained backs.

The legacy of Spanish colonialism's looting mentality continues to poison Latin and Central America, Mexico and most other places such fundamentalist Catholic doctrine left its footprint, including Spain itself.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-05-19 22:28  

#2  Tossing this in to start a bonfire.

MacArthur was responsible for both the bureaucracy of the Philippines and that of Japan, with about equal success. There are those who might suggest that this truism applies to his staff during WWII as well.
Posted by: Chuck Simmins   2007-05-19 22:06  

#1  Harvard graduate economist GMA has squandered a grand opportunity to rehabilitate Asia's "sick man". Little else but endemic corruption holds the Philippines back from being one of the mini-dragons. They have one of the most literate English speaking populations in all Asia short only of India. During the 1980s it was home to the likes of Intel and Signetics IC package assembly plants. As those wire bonding and encapsulation functions became increasingly automated it no longer made sense to install six figure machines where a single service call could rack up a five digit repair bill.

The Philippines has been unable to abandon an outdated bureaucracy whose copious red tape strangles foreign investment. Couple this with a massive scandal over "first husband" Jim Arroyo being involved in graft from the nation's jueteng numbers racket plus persistent rumors of vote fixing during the last presidential election cycle and you can stick a fork in Gloria, she's done.

Worst of all is how any overturning of Arroyo will result in the installation of yet an even more corrupt oligarchy like Erap (Estrada). This whole political trainwreck is highly reminiscent of the Palestinians rejecting Fatah only to elect Hamas, just without so many of the terrorist overtones.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-05-19 04:17  

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