MANILA, Philippines — In her inaugural speech in July 2004, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo laid out her “ten-point legacy” which she expected to leave behind after her term. One of them concerned the computerization of the electoral process. “Elections will no longer raise a single doubt about their integrity,” she promised.

Ironically, Arroyo is now embroiled in an election fraud scandal that threatens to bring her down. An audiotape of phone calls in which the president and a top election official allegedly spoke of vote padding has triggered a crisis and caused a widespread call for her resignation.

The election scandal, as well as accusations that Arroyo used illegal gambling money for her campaign, is acutely familiar to Filipinos who recall two recent presidents whose terms were characterized by widespread corruption and cut short by popular uprisings. Filipinos, in fact, regard politicians with disdain, abbreviating the term “traditional politicians” to “trapo,” the Spanish and Tagalog word for dirty rags.

‘People Power’

Arroyo's predicament comes after the political crises of the late president Ferdinand Marcos and former president Joseph Estrada.

In 1986, Marcos was ousted when Filipinos trooped to the streets in response to a call by Cardinal Jaime Sin of Manila, who died last June. The cardinal went on radio to gather support for top military officials who defected in protest of the Marcos dictatorship. The massive uprising, dubbed “People Power,” was the first peaceful “bloodless revolution” to depose a dictator.

In 2001, a second Church-backed uprising deposed Estrada, sweeping then-Vice President Arroyo to power. She served Estrada's remaining term and won the presidency in 2004 in the election she is accused of manipulating.

Shortly after her inauguration, Arroyo declared that graft and corruption can be eliminated “in a single stroke as a dragon could be killed with the swing of St. Michael's sword.”

Arroyo echoed these words more recently at the launching of a corruption prevention project.

“The winds of change are blowing in the Philippines,” she said. “And I am confident that they will sweep away the deep and corrosive effects of corruption that have crippled our nation for too long.”

The winds of change may, in fact, be blowing against Arroyo. Along with the allegation surrounding the controversial tape, Arroyo's husband and relatives have reportedly benefited from gambling syndicates and have been subjects of an investigation.

In an interview with the Register, Archbishop Oscar Cruz of Dagupan City discredited Arroyo's presidency.

Although, de facto, she is president and she has been proclaimed president. … I question how could you impeach a non-president,” he said.

He added, “I think there was cheating and vote buying especially through jueteng [illegal gambling] money. Payola was used by her for election purposes.”

Arroyo's supporters disagree. Juan Zubiri, a three-term congressman, defended Arroyo's actions in an e-mail response to the Register. “Although she has admitted making the alleged phone calls, she didn't make any insinuation of cheating. … It's really a question if the phone calls were unethical on her part. My personal opinion is that the mere inquiry of your [electoral] status and numbers does not constitute electoral fraud.”

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) issued a statement many perceive to be soft on Arroyo. The bishops called on the president to “discern deeply to what extent she might have contributed to the erosion of effective governance and whether the erosion is so severe as to be irreversible.”

The bishops added, “We do not demand her resignation. Yet neither do we encourage her simply to dismiss such a call from others.”

The call to step down was made by many political figures, including former president Corazon Aquino and 10 cabinet members who resigned after the scandal broke.

In a commentary published in the Philippine Star, Professor Alex Magno, a prominent political analyst, noted that “after the CBCP took a sober position, the groups that lined up for a resignation call have fallen into disarray.”

Archbishop Cruz acknowledged that the bishops' statement regarding Arroyo was “effective in precisely stopping people from throwing her out.”

Archbishop Cruz believes the corruption stems from the Filipinos' weakness in social doctrine. While the Church evangelized Filipinos with an inward-looking faith, “Filipinos are practically zero in translating their faith into life. Faith and life are disjointed,” he said.

Darlene Antonino-Custodio, a two-term opposition congresswoman who describes herself as a practicing Catholic, agreed.

“There is a problem in the moral fiber among Filipinos,” she said. “We have to change things so that we change the tolerance for immoral practices such as cheating.”

Some argue that Filipinos are more honest than not, pointing to a recent incident in which a poor cab driver returned 150,000 Philippines pesos (about $2,600) to a passenger who needed the money for her daughter's surgery. The Philippine Daily Inquirer also reported on a test wherein 85% of wallets containing 200 pesos (about $4) that were deliberately dropped around Manila were returned intact.

Roots of Corruption

So why does the Philippines, the most Catholic country in Asia, continue to face corruption and elected leaders on the verge of political collapse?

The Asia Times analyzed recent Philippine history in a five-part series. Citing various sources, the paper concluded that corruption has “swung like a pendulum.” As one group of elites gained predominant power, the newspaper said, “it would busily set about lining its own pockets, aware that in the next round its fortunes might well be reversed.”

The cause of this phenomenon, the Asia Times added, is steeped in Philippine history, which includes 330 years of Spanish colonization followed by 50 years of American rule. Neither regime left a workable home-rule structure.

The fact that the bishops' conference has not called for Arroyo's resignation in the present crisis does not mean that the bishops are remaining mute. Archbishop Cruz said that Filipinos have the right to ask and continue asking for her resignation.

Archbishop Cruz added, “They have likewise the right to seek other ways of making her leave the presidential office — on proviso only that none of the means employed is either violent and/or unconstitutional.”

Maria Caulfield, who was born in the Philippines, is based in Wallingford, Connecticut.