Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo wanted to delay the start of an expanded sales tax as a way to ease the worst crisis of her presidency, the country's former finance secretary said on Saturday. The comment by Cesar Purisima, who has joined calls for Arroyo to quit after he and seven other ministers resigned this week, follows allegations that Arroyo had a hand in a Supreme Court decision to freeze the implementation of the tax.
"I had a conversation with the president ... where she expressed desire to delay the implementation of eVAT (expanded value-added tax) without talking about ways it should be delayed," Purisima told ABC-CBN television.
"Certainly, there was concern about the potential impact the price increase will have on the people."
The Supreme Court issued a surprise ruling on July 1 freezing the new sales tax, the centrepiece of Arroyo's plans to cut the country's budget deficit that would have raised prices of a wide range of goods and services.
Without accusing Arroyo directly of meddling in the ruling, Purisima and other ministers who resigned said in a group interview they believed Arroyo had lost the ability to implement tough reforms because of the political crisis she is facing.
"The credibility has gone down perhaps the lowest," said Juan Santos, the former trade secretary.
"What investors are afraid of is not so much the political scenario, but can the president be able to make tough decisions." The eight ministers have said Arroyo pre-empted their plan to quit by announcing on Thursday that she had told the whole cabinet to resign.
Arroyo, due to serve until 2010, is facing the toughest test of her four years as leader over allegations she tried to influence the vote-count in last year's presidential election and that family members took kickbacks from illegal gambling.
All eyes are on Saturday's meeting of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines. Withdrawal of support by the senior clergymen would almost certainly be a lethal blow to Arroyo.