MANILA, 1 August 2005 — Her morale apparently buoyed by a Forbes magazine survey ranking her as the world’s 4th most powerful woman, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has stepped up her “media blitz” and urged the public to regard her as innocent of wrongdoings being raised against her.

In an interview with CNN late Saturday, Arroyo said she is not guilty of the main charge in the impeachment complaint filed in the House of Representatives seeking her removal from office.

The complaint, filed by a group of opposition legislators last week, accused the US-educated economist of stealing last year’s vote with the help of high-ranking military officials and a senior election official.

“I can say that I have not done any culpable violation of the constitution. I can say that I won the last elections,” she told CNN. The presidential palace released the transcripts of the interview yesterday.

She repeated her denial of allegations that election officials were bribed in her presence to ensure her victory in last year’s closely fought elections.

“People bribing people in front of me? I deny that,” Arroyo told the network.

In another interview with the ABS-CBN television, Arroyo denied allegations that her allies were bribing lawmakers to kill the impeachment complaint against her.

In an appeal unthinkable just a few weeks ago, she urged the public to regard her as innocent unless proven guilty of any crime.

Wiretapped Conversations

The case against President Arroyo rests on wiretapped telephone conversations of a man who the opposition says is independent election commission official Virgilio Garcillano.

Tapes of the conversation showed Arroyo purportedly discussing with Garcillano ways to give her a one-million vote margin over her nearest rival, opposition candidate Fernando Poe Jr.

Poe, a hugely popular actor, died of a stroke late last year in what some of his friends blamed on his defeat to Arroyo despite immense support from the public.

Word has it that the wiretapping was done by military intelligence supposedly acting on orders of Malaca?ang Palace to monitor the movements of Garcillano.

Arroyo appointed Garcillano — who was known to be an expert in manipulating election results — as a poll commissioner months before the May 11 election.

In her column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer yesterday titled “The Company She Keeps (Part One),” journalist Sylvia L. Mayuga cited a source apparently from the administration saying Arroyo’s husband and campaign leaders considered Garcillano a “dubious” ally and wanted him placed under surveillance.

Other reports in the local media, citing unnamed sources, said the Arroyos were apparently unaware that the military intelligence group, known by its acronym ISAFP, went to the extent of wiretapping Garcillano’s phones to carry out the surveillance.

Congress has to decide whether to admit as evidence the tapes against Arroyo. Wiretapping is illegal under Philippine laws, unless done with prior consent by the court.

Transcripts of the wiretapped conversations, copies of which have been passed around the world via the Internet, showed both the president and her husband, Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo talking with Garcillano about the election results while counting of the May 10 votes were still going on.

When word got out that the political opposition was going to expose the existence of the wiretapped conversations last June, Malaca?ang Palace apparently panicked and went on a preemptive strike.

Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye came out with two sets of CDs containing the conversations, one of which he claimed was tampered with by Arroyo’s foes to discredit her. Arroyo initially kept silent but later admit that the voice in the wiretapped tapes were hers. She apologized for a “lapse of judgment” in calling the poll official but denied cheating.

In the interview with CNN and ABS-CBN on Saturday and yesterday, Arroyo reiterated that she did talk to the election official after the vote count, but again dismissed calls for her to go, saying she intended to serve until the end of her term in June 2010.

Arroyo asked Congress last week to begin the process of rewriting the constitution and move the country away from its presidential system into a federal, parliamentary system.

“There are so many things so wrong in the system that you have to change the system itself,” she reiterated in the interview.

She also defended her decision to send her husband abroad after the opposition accused him of influence-peddling. “I’m not saying he’s guilty, I don’t think he is,” she said.

However, “he has to leave to reduce political intrigue and reduce the distractions to my governance.”

Corruption-Tainted

Mike Arroyo returned home yesterday but only to attend a sister’s funeral and family reunion but will then go back to the United States to continue his self-imposed exile.

The president’s husband, the subject of a congressional inquiry over alleged influence-peddling and receiving illegal gambling kickbacks — left only July 6 amid his wife’s efforts to distance herself from political scandals that threaten her government.

The president’s son and brother-in-law also are accused of receiving payoffs.

He faces no charges, and has denied taking gambling payoffs.

Arroyo’s spokesman Bunye told DZXL radio that Arroyo’s husband would attend the wake and funeral of a sister who died on Saturday. He will also attend a family reunion then return to the United States, Bunye said. The Arroyos will celebrate their 37th wedding anniversary tomorrow. It was not immediately clear how long he would stay in the country. Bunye said the exile has saddened the president but added that “it was a family decision and they’re adhering to that.”

‘Worst Is Over’

Arroyo’s spokesman yesterday also said the country has passed “the worst” of a political crisis and he expressed confidence that the president would survive the impeachment complaint filed against her. “I believe eventually, the truth will be out and the president will be vindicated,” he said.

Bunye stressed that Arroyo was focusing on improving the economy by implementing the necessary reforms, including a proposal to shift to a parliamentary system from the current presidential form of government.

“We are over the worst of the political turmoil,” he said. “The constitutional process is taking its course. Meantime, the president will push through with the task of governance and urgent political reforms.”

“We believe what is important at this stage is to bring the debate to the people and that is what the president will do,” he added. (With input from agencies)