MANILA (Reuters) -About 80 percent of Filipinos want President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to be removed from office through an impeachment process, an independent survey showed on Saturday.

A lower house committee is due to resume a debate on Tuesday before its 95 members begin voting on whether to proceed with three impeachment complaints.

The telephone survey of nearly 600 people in the Philippine capital Manila was taken on three dates — after her apology for a &#34lapse in judgment&#34 in June, after her economic team quit and her speech in Congress in July.

The poll by Social Weather Stations showed four out of five respondents favored Arroyo being impeached over allegations she contacted an elections official and ordered him to rig votes on the troubled southern island of Mindanao in the May 2004 presidential election.

Only 12 percent said they wanted the president to remain in power, rejecting calls for her to resign or moves in Congress to remove her from office if found guilty in an impeachment trial.

Arroyo came to power through a bloodless, military-backed &#34people power&#34 revolt that forced her predecessor Joseph Estrada to step down in 2001.