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Hong Kong: Hundreds of Filipinos in Hong Kong demonstrated on Sunday to demand the resignation of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as she arrived for an investment conference.
The protesters, mostly domestic workers, gathered outside the five-star Grand Hyatt hotel where Arroyo was expected to stay.
They chanted slogans in Tagalog, a main Philippine language, saying, "Gloria Arroyo step down" and "Oust Arroyo."
"We want her to go back home and face all the charges against her like corruption, human rights violations and her government's neglect of overseas Filipino workers," said Eman Villanueva, secretary general of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong.
"We want her to step down for all these," Villanueva said.
Arroyo's visit to Hong Kong came after months of political turmoil in Manila over corruption allegations implicating her and her husband.
The Senate has been investigating allegations that Arroyo, her husband and a former elections chief benefited from huge kickbacks in an aborted US$330 million deal with China's ZTE Corp. to set up a nationwide broadband network.
Arroyo's office has dismissed the charges as hearsay.
Before she left for Hong Kong, where she planned to attend the Asian Investment Conference Monday, Arroyo said her trip was dedicated to meeting business leaders to promote investments in the Philippines.
"At a time when the Philippine economy is at its strongest in over 30 years, it is imperative that we stay focused on continuing to strengthen our economy through aggressive outreach to investors and to enhance our cooperation with governments in the region like Hong Kong," Arroyo said in a statement before her departure on Sunday.
While Arroyo has been credited for her economic reforms, she has grappled with political unrest stemming from allegations of corruption, vote-rigging and human rights violations.
She has survived three opposition impeachment bids and at least four failed coup attempts.
Arroyo was due to meet representatives of the Filipino community in Hong Kong upon her arrival Sunday evening.
Foreign earnings sent home by about 8 million Filipino workers overseas amount to around 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product each year.
More than 123,000 of those Filipinos are in Hong Kong, where they are employed mostly as domestic workers.
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