For the Love of Mike

Phi

lippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had to cut short a visit to Brunei last week because her government discovered—and quashed—another coup attempt. According to her military Chief of Staff, generals were being offered $180,000 to help bring down the government and grunts $900. On her arrival back in Manila, Arroyo saluted a troop of assembled soldiers and described the threats against her as "futile." Blaring in the background was Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive.

Restive soldiers are not Arroyo's only problem. She faces a bloody insurgency in the south, a deteriorating currency and a looming presidential election campaign next spring. (She hasn't announced if she's running or not.) And then there's "Mike," First Gentleman José Miguel Arroyo. He's been accused by Senator Panfilo Lacson—who has declared his intention to run for President—of siphoning off $5.6 million of Arroyo's campaign donations and having an affair with his female accountant to boot. Mike admitted last week that his daughter Luli was avoiding him because of the scandal and that the President, when she sees pictures of his accountant in the newspapers, "gets angry." "They say," he mourned, "I'm now her weakest link."

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In fact, Mike got some good news last week. The main witness against him in Senate hearings had been his godson and former messenger, Eugenio Mahusay, who testified that he was frequently sent to the bank to deposit and withdraw large sums from an account the First Gentleman controlled under an alias. But it turned out Lacson may have been duped by his star witness. Mahusay, who under Lacson's care had retreated to a hotel outside Manila (the Senator, a former national police chief, said he had Mahusay in "protective custody"), soon changed his tune. At his next court appearance, he said he had lied all along to get back at the Arroyos for accusing him of stealing a cell phone. He even offered an apology to Lacson for his deception.

The plot thickened even more last week when Ignacio "Iggy" Arroyo, Mike's brother, said it was he who controlled the controversial bank account. Spouses and in-laws have embarrassed many a President and Prime Minister in history; Arroyo is now saying publicly that she is "married to the country."