MANILA, Philippines?She is to step down from the presidency on June 30, 2010, and a movement launched Wednesday will make sure that she does.

But President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will not entirely be out of the corridors of power.

An obstacle to her candidacy was removed when the Commission on Elections (Comelec) second division Wednesday dismissed the disqualification case filed by Ely Pamatong against Ms Arroyo.

The irony of recent history was not lost on a group of religious, militant and civil society leaders who celebrated the ninth anniversary of Edsa II by calling on the woman it helped install into power to step down.

Some 30 demonstrators marched down Ortigas Avenue toward the Edsa Shrine in Quezon City Wednesday not with the grandiose design of ousting a president but with a humble campaign to make the sitting President leave office on midday of June 30.

The Comelec said that there was no legal hindrance to Ms Arroyo?s candidacy and that her motives should be left for the second district of Pampanga to decide.

?It?s ironic,? said Rodolfo ?Jun? Lozada, whistle-blower of the controversial National Broadband Network deal.

June 30 movement

?She (President Macapagal-Arroyo) has to leave midday of June 30 as the Constitution says. In whatever shape or form or capacity, and not for any minute longer should she remain in power,? he said.

The group called itself the ?June 30 Movement.?

Ms Arroyo is required to transfer power on June 30 to the newly elected president, but she is running for a congressional seat in her home province, Pampanga, currently occupied by her son Juan Miguel Arroyo.

Aside from Ms Arroyo, Pamatong also asked the Comelec to bar deposed President Joseph Estrada from running for public office.

Let people decide

The second division, led by Commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer, said there was no law prohibiting a sitting President from seeking a local post.

The assertion that Arroyo is covered by the constitutional ban prohibiting an incumbent President from seeking reelection ?should be dismissed outright,? its decision read.

Pamatong, who was arrested in 2004 after the metal spikes he threw on EDSA (Epifanio delos Santos Avenue) damaged vehicles and caused a major traffic disturbance, also told the Comelec that Ms Arroyo could not run for public office as this would be a lopsided battle against her opponent.

He also noted that the President was entering the local race to escape the charges that would be filed against her after she stepped down.

?We should simply let the people decide and not substitute our own judgment for the people?s enlightened choice,? the division said.

Ms Arroyo, like Estrada, is not a nuisance candidate as she has shown that she has supporters and the capability to wage an electoral campaign, it said.

Waste of time

Saying Pamatong?s arguments were flawed, the second division chastised the self-proclaimed author and lawyer for filing such petitions.

?It is a waste of our precious time and will only serve to clog the dockets of this Commission,? the ruling said.

Pamatong?s petition was the second case filed against the President. The other disqualification case was submitted by Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros and is being studied by the first division.

At the Edsa Shrine, Renato Reyes Jr., Bayan secretary general, said he found it funny that for the past few years, groups had set out to try to remove Ms Arroyo from Malacañang, but now, all they hoped for was that she step down from the presidency once her term ends.

?It?s not that we did not try,? he told the Inquirer.

?For the past three-four years, there have been attempts to revive people power. But they?ve only met suppression. People were called destabilizers. People have been killed. Critics have been jailed,? Reyes said.

?If you?re a teenager now, for half of your life you?ve known only one President, and that is GMA,? he said, referring to Ms Arroyo by her initials.

Respect Constitution

Sr. Mary John Mananzan, chair of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (AMRSP), said: ?We?re here to remind her (Ms Arroyo) to respect the Constitution that put her in power, and to vacate her office.?

?We?re only committing ourselves to the Constitution. We?re not even asking for her to resign. Our goal is to make sure that she steps down on midday of June 30 as the Constitution says,? Lozada said.

The group assembled at the entrance gates of De La Salle Greenhills before noon and from there marched to the EDSA intersection and converged at the famed site of the two ?people power? revolts in 1986 and 2001.

The group included leaders and members of AMRSP, National Council of Churches of the Philippines, Promotion of Church People?s Response, Pagbabago People?s Movement for Change, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), Courage and Gabriela.

They shouted no slogans, but they carried placards bearing messages like: ?No to Gloria Forever? and ?End Gloria?s Tyranny.?

Screenwriter Bibeth Orteza of Pagbabago said there remained fears of a no-election scenario, in which Ms Arroyo would become prime minister under a parliamentary government despite her pronouncements to the contrary.

?The woman says one thing, does another,? she said.

Manifesto

The marchers heard Mass at the shrine chapel at noon. Afterward, they distributed copies of the June 30 Movement manifesto. They said they were seeking signatures.

The manifesto started with a quote from Jose Rizal: ?There are no tyrants where there are no slaves.?

It ended with: ?I hereby affix my signature on this document to affirm my commitment to perform my duty as a citizen of the Republic of the Philippines particularly in asserting our sovereign right to demand a peaceful transition of power from (Ms Arroyo) to the next President of the Republic other than herself at noontime of June 30, 2010.?