Majority of Filipinos want Arroyo impeached – poll

MANILA (Reuters) – About 80 percent of Filipinos want
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to be removed from office
through an impeachment process, an independent survey showed on
Saturday.

A lower house committee is due to resume a debate on
Tuesday before its 95 members begin voting on whether to
proceed with three impeachment complaints.

The telephone survey of nearly 600 people in the Philippine
capital Manila was taken on three dates — after her apology
for a “lapse in judgment” in June, after her economic team quit
and her speech in Congress in July.

The poll by Social Weather Stations showed four out of five
respondents favored Arroyo being impeached over allegations she
contacted an elections official and ordered him to rig votes on
the troubled southern island of Mindanao in the May 2004
presidential election.

Only 12 percent said they wanted the president to remain in
power, rejecting calls for her to resign or moves in Congress
to remove her from office if found guilty in an impeachment
trial.

Arroyo came to power through a bloodless, military-backed
“people power” revolt that forced her predecessor Joseph
Estrada to step down in 2001.