Next Congress may have 5 Arroyos
MANILA, Philippines - The President's eldest son Pampanga 2nd district Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Macapagal-Arroyo confirmed on Thursday a possible run for Congress in the May 2010 elections, as a party-list representative.
Interviewed on the sidelines of his House energy committee hearing on the energy crisis, Mr. Arroyo confirmed that “many party-list groups are asking me” to run.
This after he was asked what his political plans are now that his mother, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, is seeking the congressional seat he now holds.
The younger Arroyo is just on his 2nd term and is entitled to one more run.
Earlier in the day though, Arroyo jokingly told his colleagues, “I’m not running. I was eased out!!!”
This was during the committee meeting when his colleagues asked him if he was running for Congress against Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Chair Zenaida Ducut, a former representative of the younger Arroyo’s district, in the 2010 elections.
Ducut answered in the negative, stressing she has a fixed term till 2015.
Speaker GMA up to new Congress
Meantime, the younger Arroyo laughed off talk that the President will be elected speaker in the next Congress.
He stressed that it's hard to talk about the Speakership but conceded that it will be a matter left to those who will win in the congressional races.
The President’s allies in the Lakas-Kampi-CMD previously said that since many of them are likely to win their congressional districts in May, they will become the power base of the president to propel her to the speakership. (Read: Allies say Arroyo can easily get House Speakership)
Figures from the Lakas-Kampi-CMD secretariat show at least 170 congressional district candidates belong to the ruling party. The list excludes the possible party-list allies of Lakas-Kampi-CMD from which the younger Arroyo’s party-list group may most likely come from.
The younger Arroyo said he will announce if he has accepted the invitation to run for a party-list seat and identify his party-list group before the deadline for the party-list group submission of nominees lapses in March.
However, if all the Arroyos running in the may 2010 elections win, there will be 5 members of the President’s family in Congress. They include the President, (2nd district, Pampanga), Rep. Mikey Arroyo, (still to be announced party-list group), Rep Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo, (2nd district, Camarines Sur), Rep Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo, (5th district, Negros Occidental), and Rep. Maria Lourdes “Marilou” Tuason Arroyo-Lesaca (Kasangga).
This would leave only the President's daughter Evangelina Lourdes “Luli” Arroyo-Bernas and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo outside of formal political life.