|
Foes of embattled President Gloria Arroyo held a “Mass for the
truth” on Sunday and vowed more street protests in the coming
weeks to press for her resignation.
Hundreds of students and church workers joined
former President Corazon Aquino and other members of the opposition
in the Mass at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.
They sang nationalistic hymns and raised
clenched fists as they repeated demands for Mrs. Arroyo to resign.
Also in the gathering was Rodolfo “Jun”
Lozada Jr., a former mid-level government official who implicated
President Arroyo’s husband and a political ally in a corruption
case surrounding a botched telecoms deal.
Lozada’s explosive testimony has led to
mounting calls for the President to step down, and on Friday more
than 15,000 people gathered in the capital’s Makati financial
district in the largest protest since the scandal broke last year.
“There will be more rallies to come,” said
Adel Tamano, a spokesman for the political opposition. “We believe
that the rally last Friday has led to a snowballing effect.”
He noted that universities around Manila had
become major starting points for protests, with students coming out
in their thousands last week.
“We are beginning to reach a critical mass,”
Tamano said on local radio, adding that the protests in Manila were
matched by smaller protests in key cities around the Philippines.
Aquino and another ex-president, Joseph Estrada,
were the key figures in last week’s protest and both called for
Mrs. Arroyo to step down.
Renato Reyes, secretary-general of the activist
group Bayan, said Friday’s rally was the “strongest rejection”
yet of President Arroyo.
“This is an encouraging sign of political
maturity among Filipinos,” he said, adding that the next protest
would be on March 8, to coincide with International Women’s Day.
President Arroyo has kept a low profile amid the
antigovernment protests, and her spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Sunday
she had spent Friday chairing a mining conference and visiting
development projects in the countryside.
The President earlier said she would not step
down until her six-year term ends in 2010 and denied that her family
had profited from government deals.
She has earlier survived three impeachment bids
in Congress and put down two coup attempts.
-- AFP
|
