Six Philippine cabinet ministers resign, urge Arroyo to go
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-08 11:07

Six members of the Philippine cabient, including the key economic team, have resigned and urged President Gloria Arroyo to step down to end a political crisis over vote-rigging allegations.

The group, including Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin, criticised Arroyo's management style and said she should step down to spare the Southeast Asian nation from further turmoil.

"The longer the president stays in office under a cloud of doubt and mistrust, and with her style of decision-making, the greater the damage on the economy and the more vulnerable the fragile political situation becomes to extremists seeking to undermine our democracy," the group said in a statement.

The group said Arroyo should make the "supreme sacrifice" for the good of the country and allow Vice President Noli di Castro to take over.

The Philippines has been in turmoil for weeks over allegations that Arroyo conspired with elections officials to fix last year's presidential elections.

Arroyo has apologized for improperly telephoning an election official in the May 2004 election during the vote count, but she has denied cheating and has resolutely refused to step down.

The scandal was sparked by the release of wiretapped telephone conversations which purportedly show Arroyo plotting with a senior election official to fix a one million-vote winning margin.

The others who resigned were Trade Minister Juan Santos, Education Minister Florencio Abad, Social Welfare Minister Corazon Soliman, Agrarian Reform Minister Rene Villa, as well as senior presidential advisers Imelda Nicolas of the anti-poverty commission and Teresita Deles.

The top two revenue commissioners, internal revenue bureau chief Guillermo Parayno and Alberto Lina of customs, also signed the joint statement.

The Philippine stock market and the peso both fell in response to the statement.

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