Arroyo rewrites political history, formalises bid for congressional seat

Manila: President Gloria Arroyo on Tuesday filed her certificate of candidacy at the elections' office in her late father's hometown in Central Luzon in the Philippines.

Arroyo was accompanied at the Commission on Elections office by her husband, Jose Miguel as well as town mayors and local officials of Pampanga province.

Residents of Lubao town mobbed the president, who rewrote Philippine political history by becoming the first incumbent chief executive to seek a lower elective position.

Arroyo is vying for the congressional seat currently being held by her eldest son, Juan Miguel.

Her father, former president Diosdado Macapagal, was congressman representing the same province from 1947 to 1957.

Arroyo's younger son, Diosdado II, is representative of the first district of Camarines Sur in the Bicol region while a brother-in-law, Ignacio, represents the fifth district of Negros Occidental province.

Arroyo was first elected to the Senate in 1992. She topped the 1995 senatorial elections with nearly 16 million votes. She won the vice presidential race in 1998 and was catapulted to the presidency after a popular uprising ousted President Joseph Estrada in 2001. She won her own term as president in the controversial 2004 elections. Estrada is also standing for president in next year's elections.

Arroyo is expected to win overwhelmingly as her son had won over 90 per cent of the votes cast in the last elections. An unknown Feliciano Serrano, an electronics engineer, will be Arroyo's lone opponent.

Pampanga's second congressional district is composed of the towns of Lubao, Guagua, Floridablanca, Porac, Sta. Rita, and Sasmuan.

Parliamentary immunity

Earlier, a popular academic and newspaper columnist, Randy David, who once vowed to stand in the elections should Arroyo run for one of the province's four congressional seats, backtracked from his plan, saying his family had dissuaded him from pursuing his bid.

San Fernando Archbishop Paciano Aniceto, a known adviser of the president, said Arroyo's plan to run for a seat at the House of Representatives was based on her "desire to serve".

Critics accused Arroyo of running for Congress to gain immunity from an expected onslaught of suits. Under the Philippine Constitution, members of Congress enjoy parliamentary immunity from suits.

Others said she has been drunk with power. Arroyo's decision to run for a lower post "surely leaves a bad taste in the mouth," said Senator Francis Escudero.

Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) accused Arroyo of being "drunk with or addicted to power".