Arroyo announces to drop reconciliation with political opposition

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Thursday dropped her bid for reconciliation with the opposition and other groups rejecting her calls for unity and cooperation, vowing to enforce the rule of law against those who would violate peace and order.

President Arroyo toughened her attitude towards the political opposition as she started campaigning for her bid to amend the Constitution, saying the degenerated political system only showed the need to change the country's presidential system to the parliamentary system.

"I'm tired of chasing the bully around the schoolyard. Those who will heed my call for unity are welcome. But to those who will not and continue to sow trouble, we will enforce the rule of law, right ? " the president said in a speech in Clark Special Economic Zone, Pampanga.

"Let us move, let us look for jobs for our constituents. That is our primary responsibility. Let us work together to fulfill this duty," she added.

Arroyo emphasized that nothing would happen to the country if destabilizers would be allowed to continue to create trouble and disrupt development.

"The current troubles and misunderstandings only prove that the current system needs to be changed," she said.

The president was back in fighting form after winning an impeachment case at the House of Representatives.

She said earlier that she was ready to move on and implement her economic reforms as she braced for more political turmoil due to her enemies' continuous call for her to resign for alleged cheating in the May 2004 elections.

"We are already on the second phase of our economic reforms. What is this second phase of reform? It demands double the energy, double the discipline, double the result to succeed at the time when we are held back by the constraints in the global environment and we are held back by such a degenerated political system," she said.

The opposition including some prominent figures like former President Corazon Aquino and Senate President Franklin Drilon have rejected the president's call for them to set their political differences aside and start working for the country.

Arroyo's critics and enemies maintained that the truth about the cheating allegations against her remained unknown even though the impeachment complaints have been killed by her House allies prematurely.

On Wednesday, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita announced also that the government had scrapped the maximum tolerance policy toward rallyists as intelligence reports showed the opposition, the leftists and other groups seeking to bring down the government would continue with their actions in the months to come.

Source: Xinhua