By Manuel Mogato MANILA (Reuters) - A scandal over lawmakers' misuse of public funds has become the biggest crisis of Philippine President Benigno Aquino's three-year rule, tainting his carefully crafted image as a corruption fighter and undermining his ability to push economic reforms. Aquino has struggled to keep the scandal at arms length since late July, when a whistleblower revealed that some lawmakers, including the president's allies, were stealing up to half the money being allocated to local projects from discretionary government funds. While corruption allegations are far from new in the Philippines, the revelations have struck a chord with Filipinos because of the scale of the wrongdoing and the shock that little had changed despite Aquino's reform drive. Aquino, the only son of democracy icon and former president Corazon Aquino, has tried to tap into the public mood by saying he too is outraged by the corruption, which was corroborated in a detailed report by the state auditing body.
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