Arroyo urges system change

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said yesterday it was time to overhaul a dysfunctional political system in the Philippines but avoided any mention of an attempt to impeach her over allegations of vote-rigging and corruption.

The annual state of the nation address, carried live on radio and television, fell short of what many analysts had expected to be a rousing plan of action at a time of deep political crisis.

The opposition - united in wanting Ms Arroyo out but otherwise fragmented - filed an impeachment complaint in the lower house of Congress earlier yesterday but did not get enough support to send the motion straight to trial by senators in the upper house.

The economy was "poised for take-off" but the political system was a "hindrance to progress", Ms Arroyo told a joint session of Congress and a gallery of government workers, army and police generals, and members of the influential Roman Catholic clergy.

"It's time to start the great debate on charter change," she said, referring to a proposed reworking of the Constitution and a possible shift to a parliamentary system to ease gridlock and speed up the passage of laws.

The President was interrupted by frequent applause but dozens of opposition lawmakers boycotted the speech and about 40,000 protesters massed near the Congress building across from hundreds of riot police and barriers of barbed wire, demanding she resign.

It was the largest anti-Arroyo demonstration to date, but far from the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who took to the streets in "people power" revolts that overthrew Ferdinand Marcos as dictator in 1986 and Joseph Estrada as president in 2001.

Ms Arroyo's supporters, who had marshalled a crowd of 120,000 earlier this month, managed just 15,000 at their own rally yesterday.

"We will not waver in our commitment to economic reform and fiscal discipline, whatever the political cost," Ms Arroyo said.