Under Siege

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo spent last week in desperate spin mode. First, the Philippine President went on national television to admit that she had spoken on the phone with an unnamed election official during the counting of votes in the presidential election in May last year—an issue that has galvanized the political opposition for weeks. Arroyo maintained it was an innocent call, not an attempt to rig the ballot, but acknowledged a "lapse in judgment" and asked the citizenry to "close this chapter." So important was the speech that she gave it twice, in English and then in Tagalog, which is more...

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