Little has changed, Gloria Arroyo admits, between her father's presidency of the Philippines in the 1960s and her own today. Like her, Diosdado Macapagal concentrated on improving the lot of the poor by reforming the economy, she explains. Again like her, he was thwarted by "vested interests"―a reference to the clique of rich families that dominates local business and politics. "We are the oldest democracy is Asia," she says, "but we have also become one of the weakest." But that is coming to an end, Mrs Arroyo declares, fixing the portrait of her father that hangs opposite her desk with a steady gaze. Whereas he ran for a second term and lost (to Ferdinand Marcos, the country's future strongman), she recently announced that she would not stand in next year's presidential election. Freed from the pressures of electoral politics, she argues, she will make a clean break with the past in her final 17 months in office.
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