Everyone’s stepping down these days. First it was House Speaker Prospero Nograles, who filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) for mayor of Davao City last Saturday (November 28) even though he had announced several times before that he was not interested in local politics (He had said running for mayor would be a step down for him since he was already the “fourth most powerful man” in the country). Then on Monday Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte filed his COC for vice mayor, becoming the running mate of his daughter Vice Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio. But no matter how much the two have “demoted” themselves, they can’t beat what President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did yesterday, which was to file her COC to run for a seat in Congress in her hometown in Pampanga.
Let’s hear Mrs. Arroyo out before we make our judgment. In a radio interview a day before, she said: “After much contemplation, I realized I’m not ready to step down completely from public service… Gaya ng alam ninyo, hinihilingan ako ng mga mamamayan ng aking tahanang distrito sa Pampanga na manatili sa buhay-publiko (As you all know, I have been asked by the citizens of my home district in Pampanga to stay on in public life), so after much soul-searching, I have decided to respond affirmatively to their call.”
We can believe that there is a clamor for her to run from her townmates; we can and should expect no less. Any place that calls her her own would certainly want her to continue serving them, even if is at a lower level. People who fear that she could use her position as President in order to get herself elected are mistaken because her victory is already a foregone conclusion: with no one seriously running against her, she does not even need to campaign, and she would use only a minimal amount to get herself elected. Calls for her to step down as President are thus misplaced: while she could use her position to ensure her victory, there is really no need to because the congressional seat is practically hers already.
But is it proper for her to serve them as their representative in the Lower House after already having served the entire country as President? Mrs. Arroyo is already the second-longest serving President of the Philippines, next only to the dictator Ferdinand Marcos who stayed on for 20 years by declaring martial law and ruling with an iron fist (some say Mrs. Arroyo is doing technically the same thing). In a month-and-a-half she will have served nine years as the head of the country — and she still thinks that is not enough.
She should follow the lead of former Presidents Corazon C. Aquino and Fidel Ramos who, after serving out their terms, became advocates for their respective causes. For Mrs. Aquino, it was at first silently for moral recovery and then loudly against the excesses of the Arroyo administration. For Mr. Ramos, it was to promote the Philippines all over the world, and over the years he has become one of the most respected world leaders, being in the same level as Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore and probably higher in stature than the scandal-ridden Bill Clinton of the US. If Mrs. Arroyo takes their lead and simply bows out of public office in 2010, she could conceivably become a senior stateswoman and do the entire country, not just her district in Pampanga, more good.
Of course the problem is that multiple charges are waiting for her once she steps down, and that is obviously the reason she wants to stay in office, albeit at a lower one. As many critics have been saying, Mrs. Arroyo could be plotting to get herself elected House Speaker, from which position she could maneuver to amend the Constitution to change the current Presidential system to a parliamentary one. Once the change is in place, she would get herself elected Prime Minister, thus becoming the country’s leader all over again.
But actually getting there will be a long process. After all, she would be attempting to do all this as a member of Congress, one who is on equal footing with all the other representatives. She would have to be exceptionally popular among her peers or rich — preferably both — to pull it off. Of course she could start buying off legislators (those who are sure to win) as early as now, but who’s to say the members of Congress would not turn her back on her once they’re all seated? You know what they say about politics: there are no permanent allies, only permanent interests.
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