Democracy at work.

Manila--In ceremony on January 20, surrounded by Cardinal Jaime Sin, president Corazon Aquino, and former general Fidel Ramos, Gloria MacapagalArroyo, vice-president and opposition leader, was sworn in as the 14th president of the Philippines before a great multitude who gathered at the Edsa shrine in Manila.

The ousting of former president Joseph Estrada through peaceful protest, amid charges of corruption in his impeachment trial, was backed by Cardinal Sin, who denounced Estrada as a "disaster" and demanded his resignation. In solidarity with Cardinal Sin, Archbishop Franco, Papal Nuncio to the Philippines, had issued a strong statement from the Vatican in December: "The Holy See, at present as in the past, is in absolute harmony with the Catholic bishops of the Philippines ... The Holy See fully supports the bishops' commitment in favor of spiritual and moral values which should also guide the State institutions in their task to favor and protect the common good of citizens"

The new president enjoys wide popular support and has achieved several electoral records in the Philippines' democratic history. She is the daughter of Diosdado Macapagal, the president who preceded Marcos. She studied at the Catholic School of the Assumption, and later graduated magna cum laude in business from the university of the same name. She did graduate studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where she was a classmate of Bill Clinton. She later received a doctorate in economics from the University of the Philippines. Macapagal-Arrroyo has distinguished herself in the fields of economics, education and journalism and has been involved in the political field for some years.

For Cardinal Sin, one of the leading forces behind the campaign that swept former leader Ferdinand Marcos from power in 1986, it is a question of good overcoming evil. In a Mass celebrated by him on the Wednesday before the takeover, he declared that "We are all angry at the shameful eleven (i.e. the eleven Senators who blocked evidence at Estrada's impeachment trial) who decided to hide the truth from us. We are angry at this blatant game of numbers. Morality is not a matter of numbers. Morality is from God and God does not sleep. God will judge and punish those who prevent the truth from being known."