NPR's Eric Weiner reports that the new president of the Philippines spent the day shoring up support from the country's most important power centers-- the business, military and the Catholic Church. Gloria Macapgal Arroyo, the vice president who took power over the weekend when President Josef Estrada was forced from office, faces daunting national problems. They include an economy in free-fall, a currency at record lows, and an on-going Muslim insurgency in the south. Filipinos have no illusions that Arroyo will be able to work miracles. But after the tiring scandals of the Estrada regime, they seem willing to give the Harvard-educated economist a chance.
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