Poll shows majority of Filipinos want Arroyo impeached

MANILA: A majority of Filipinos want President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to go, either by impeachment or her resignation, an independent survey showed on Saturday. Arroyo survived an attempt in the lower house to impeach her this week, averting a Senate trial that would have examined allegations that she cheated her way to a fresh six-year term last year. The interviews of at least 1,200 people across the country by Social Weather Stations (SWS) were carried out between Aug. 26 and Sept 5, ending a day before Arroyo’s solid majority in Congress threw out all three impeachment complaints against her. “Anti-GMA (Arroyo) feelings ran very high in the last few days of the recent hearings of the House Committee on Justice, finding 79 percent wanting President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo impeached, 64 percent favouring her resignation,” SWS said. “The higher the socio-economic class, and the higher the schooling, the greater the support for either impeachment or resignation of President Arroyo,” it said in a statement. The survey also showed that 51 percent thought she should be removed by street protests if Congress were to reject the impeachment complaints against her, which it did. “The key factor in the negative sentiment is the belief of most Filipinos that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s admitted phone calls to an election official amounted to instructing him to cheat in the 2004 election,” the SWS statement added. reuters

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