PRESIDENT Gloria Arroyo said yesterday she would run for Congress next year, becoming the first sitting chief of state to vie for a lower elective position.
“I realized I am not ready to step down completely from public service,” Mrs. Arroyo said on state-run radio.
“As you know, people from my province of Pampanga have made a clamor for me to remain in public service, so after much soul-searching, I have decided to respond to their call.”
Mrs. Arroyo, barred by the Constitution from seeking a second term, said she would step down following national elections in May.
Some critics say she might try to use a seat in the House that she is sure to snag to retain significant power by seeking high posts or even working toward the creation of a parliamentary system in which she would be prime minister.
Mrs. Arroyo’s lawyers have refused to speculate on her plans beyond running for the second congressional district in her home province of Pampanga, where her family and supporters dominate.
The President will travel to Pampanga on Tuesday to speak to supporters, after which a representative will file her candidacy papers, lawyer Romulo Macalintal said.
After succeeding President Joseph Estrada, who was toppled by massive anti-corruption protests in 2001, Mrs. Arroyo went on to win her own six-year term in 2004 amid allegations of fraud.
She subsequently survived four impeachment bids initiated by the opposition in Congress, and four power grabs by disenchanted troops who blamed her for corruption and misrule.
Opinion polls have consistently found her to be the least popular president since the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who was ousted in 1986.
Most recently, she fended off criticism of her political alliance with the Ampatuan clan, which is accused in the massacre of 57 people, nearly half of them journalists, in Maguindanao.
One critic, Randy David, a sociology professor at the University of the Philippines who briefly thought of running against Mrs. Arroyo, said she might use her congressional seat to work to amend the Constitution from the current US-style presidential system to a parliamentary system, and under which she could be installed prime minister.
Mrs. Arroyo told the radio interview “that situation is so hypothetical, I won’t even bother to speculate about it.”
Mrs. Arroyo has been working for several years to make those changes to the Constitution, but has routinely been sidetracked by crises that left her struggling for her political survival.
Former President Joseph Estrada, who she ousted in 2000, was among the opposition presidential candidates who filed their nominations yesterday.
On learning of Mrs. Arroyo’s plans, Estrada said the President should not be allowed to run for any position next year with the entire machinery of the government at her disposal.
“She should not run because she has already reached the highest elective position,” Estrada said in Tagalog at his Polk Street residence in San Juan.
“It demeans the Office of the President.”
Mrs. Arroyo’s son, Juan Miguel, said he welcomed his mother’s decision to run for a seat he has occupied for two terms.
“We are happy with her decision and I believe it is an exercise in humility, and I will serve and support her in my capacity as her son,” he said.
Mrs. Arroyo said her duties as President would take precedence over her congressional campaign.
“As President, my first commitment is to the nation we all love,” she said. “My bid for Congress will be spirited but only secondary to my duty as President.
“I will use very, very little of my time to campaign,” added Mrs. Arroyo, who has already visited Pampanga almost 50 times this year.
In her radio interview, the President answered accusations that she was running for Congress to ensure immunity from possible criminal charges for corrupt practices in government.
“The only congressional immunity is from libel suits, from utterances made in a congressional session,” she said.
“That is not what I am after. This move reflects my ongoing commitment to public service. I have come to the conclusion that I can best serve the nation from a seat in Congress should I be elected.”
Macalintal, who was appointed Mrs. Arroyo’s spokesman for the Pampanga campaign, said the President would attend a mass at 9 a.m. today in Lubao, her home town. She would then announce her decision to run before the mayors of Pampanga’s Second District.
A representative would file her certificate of candidacy on her behalf, Macalintal said. With Joel Zurbano, Gigi David, AP
