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Philippines
swears in new
president

Isle experts: Macapagal-Arroyo
is facing tremendous task

U.S. military's exercise cut short

---

By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

EAST-WEST CENTER specialists on the Philippines doubt that badly needed social reforms will follow the ouster of Joseph Estrada as the country's president.

Researcher Jerry Finin, who has observed Philippine politics for more than 20 years, said, "The transition to new leadership is to be commended, especially in view of the fact that the entire process was a very peaceful one."

But he said Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was sworn in as president, faces major challenges.

The first will be to try to revive the Philippine economy and find ways to help the poor, he said, noting that while Estrada received most of his support from the poor, he did little to help them.

Her second big challenge will be to restore the structural separation in the government between the military and civilian administration and between church and state, he said, pointing out "the coalition that brought her to power was a combination of business community, Catholic Church and military."

Associated Press
Former Philippine President Joseph Estrada shouts and
waves good-bye to his aides as he leaves Malacanang
Presidential Palace on a boat in Manila today.

Still another challenge will be "how to bring former president Estrada to justice," Finin said.

"He remains in the country. His supporters are still many and well funded, and it's unclear how the legal process will proceed in light of the failed impeachment attempt."

Macapagal-Arroyo, an economist, was sworn in as president after hundreds of thousands of protesters demanded Estrada's resignation and the Philippine Supreme Court ruled that he should be removed.

The former movie actor was elected president of the Philippines in 1998 with the highest popular vote in the nation's history because of his alleged support of the poor and common people.

But even as he and his cabinet members were welcomed during a Hawaii visit last September, people were expressing concern about the economy, corruption and cronyism.

He was accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes and other illegal payments, but the Philippine Senate adjourned his impeachment trial Tuesday.

Peter Xenos, East-West Center researcher who studies health, population and social change in the Philippines, said there is no evidence to suggest that Macapagal-Arroyo is corrupt but "the fact is that power in the Philippines definitely corrupts."

Xenos served on Macapagal-Arroyo's masters thesis committee at the University of the Philippines.

She is a properly trained economist, but that doesn't mean good things are going to happen, he said. "There are really powerful forces operating against social and economic reform."

Xenos said a number of his reform-minded friends joined Estrada's administration and rapidly "jumped ship" because he was elected as a man of the people and never followed through. So there was wide-scale disappointment, as well as scandal, he said.

One of the big changes in the Philippines, he said, is that the people "are blowing the whistle a lot sooner" on corrupt leadership.

Xenos said Filipinos were able to mobilize quickly with protests against Estrada, not just in Manila but in all major urban centers, because of the Internet and other fast communication.

U.S. military's exercise cut short Star-Bulletin staff The Pacific Command here today said it expects that 190 Air Force special operations personnel and several of their helicopters and aircraft will be back at their home base in Okinawa by tomorrow. The Air Force personnel arrived in the Philippines earlier this month for an exercise with their counterparts. That exercise was supposed to run through the middle of next month. No military personnel from Hawaii are currently deployed to the Philippines, a spokeswoman for the Pacific Command said.