Philippine Protests Turn Violent

Philippine Police used water cannons and truncheons to battle thousands of protesters Monday, as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo gave a speech pledging to end poverty in a decade and arrest criminal kingpins.

In her second state of the nation address, Arroyo sought to reassure a country battered by economic woes and crime, outlining a vision for a classless society. She also tried to woo jittery foreign investors, calling the Philippines the third-best performing economy in Asia.

Outside Congress, thousands of leftist protesters, including many who backed Arroyo's rise to power clashed with police. The demonstrators called for her resignation and demanded land and an end to the U.S. counterterrorism exercise.

Referring to the U.S. military exercise aimed at helping Philippine troops wipe out the brutal Abu Sayyaf Muslim extremist group, Arroyo said the global anti-terror coalition has helped break what she called "the cycle of terrorism and criminality."

She said Washington will conduct more exercises to boost the poorly trained Philippine military's capabilities. About 1,000 U.S. troops are in the Philippines as part of the current six-month exercise, which ends July 31. Abu Sayyaf has been loosely linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.

"We shall enhance our strategic relationship with the United States through continuing training exercises to sharpen our soldiers' capabilities to move and communicate, to fix and finish off their targets," Arroyo said.

Arroyo also urged the Philippine Congress to urgently pass an anti-terrorism bill now under consideration.

"A strong republic takes care of the people and takes care of their future," she said. "Thus, a strong republic is the bedrock of the victory we seek over poverty within the decade."

"I am taking a direct hand in the war against the enemies of the republic," Arroyo said in her speech, adding: "There will be no compromise and no quarter."

"We are at war ... with terrorists, with kidnappers, with drug lords. Even a stalemate will be a defeat ... if we are to win the most fundamental war, the war against poverty."

There was no major policy departure in the speech but Australian executive Peter Wallace of the Wallace Business Forum think tank welcomed her promise of a tough administration.

"She raised the concern of foreign businessmen about peace and order and the absolute importance of addressing that. I think she is very serious about what she wants to do," Wallace said.

She announced the capture of two Muslim extremists suspected of bombing a commercial center in southern General Santos city in April which killed 15 people.

Arroyo's pledge of aggressive leadership came in the face of concerns about her ability to effectively lead a government dealing with challenges from kidnappers and Muslim radicals blamed for terror bombings in the south.

On the eve of her speech, a Manila pollster published results of a survey showing business executives were lukewarm about economic conditions.

Forty-seven percent of those polled said they would expand their workforce only in one to two years, while 57 percent said they planned to boost capacity within the same period.

"For a country to be as good as it can get, many of the right decisions are tough decisions," Arroyo said. "I will make even more tough decisions in the year to come. Because the easy way out may postpone the pain but only prolong the problem.

With its long-term goals and plea for patience, the speech sounded like a campaign launch for the 2004 presidential election. Arroyo was swept to power in January 2001 by mass protests that ousted her now-jailed predecessor, Joseph Estrada. There is widespread speculation that she will seek her own six-year term.

Two layers of riot police kept the protesters several blocks away from the House of Representatives, where Arroyo arrived by helicopter to deliver her speech.

Some of the protesters burned an effigy of Arroyo and tried to remove iron railings used as a roadblock. Backed by water cannons, riot police charged the unruly crowd with truncheons. Stones rained down, injuring several people and at least four photographers, including one from The Associated Press.

Arroyo's 18 months in power have been steady but undermined by an inability to pull the country out of a slow growth pattern and perceptions that little is being done in the fight against corruption, a creaky legal system, protectionism and crime.

"I believe there is always room for improvement," Arroyo said. "I cannot grow taller but I can always get better."

She said she was proposing a new anti-terrorism bill, asset securitization and asset management bills to help banks deal with high levels of bad loans, a bill to make farm land acceptable as loan collateral and measures to make electricity cheaper.

Chances of pushing through legislation are now stronger after an independent senator declared his support for Arroyo, ensuring her control of Congress.

At least 16 people, including two journalists, were hurt and 11 arrested when the vanguard of 15,000 leftist marchers calling on Arroyo to resign tore down a steel barrier near Congress, where she was delivering her state of the nation address.

The battle to end law-and-order problems played a key role in Arroyo's speech. Arroyo said high-ranking smugglers will be treated as economic saboteurs who will face capital charges, criminal syndicates as threats to national security and drug lords as enemies of the state.

"I am determined to build a strong republic by breaking the back of terrorism and criminality," she said.