CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Pampanga Auxiliary Bishop Pablo Virgilio David urged the best legal minds in the country to seek the wisdom of the Supreme Court now that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is running as representative of the second district in the province.

“I wish some legal luminaries in the country can file a case in the Supreme Court for them to interpret the spirit of the 1987 Constitution on this issue,” David said after the President’s lawyer, Romulo Macalintal, confirmed his client’s bid.

Macalintal said there was no legal impediment for the President to seek another position.

David said the issue at hand was whether the President should resign upon filing her certificate of candidacy (CoC).

The bishop also expressed misgivings about Arroyo’s leadership.

“As the saying goes, ‘Tell me who your friends are.’ The kind of friends GMA (Arroyo) has in Maguindanao tells a lot about who she is and about her kind of politics,” he said. “The kind of friends she has in Pampanga tells no less. God save our country. God save Pampanga.”

He was referring to the murder of 57 people on November 23 in Maguindanao, supposedly a handiwork of one of her allies in the Ampatuan clan to prevent a member of a rival family to file his CoC for governor.

Pampanga Governor Eddie Panlilio said Monday was a “day of sadness” because Arroyo has lost her sense of “delicadeza” (propriety).

Panlilio said Arroyo deprived other leaders of chances to serve the district.

Randy David, a University of the Philippine professor who backed out of the congressional race on Sunday, called Arroyo’s candidacy “as brazen as the massacre in Ampatuan, Maguindanao.”

“I foresee dark days ahead for the nation’s political life,” David said.

The President’s half-sister, former Pampanga Vice Governor Cielo Macapagal-Salgado, felt sad about the news. “I’m not happy about it,” Salgado said.

Salgado said she decided not to run for representative because she wanted her other province mates to be given the opportunity to serve the home district of her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal.

In Guagua town, residents Crisanta Santiago and Norma Castro welcomed Ms Arroyo’s bid.

“She has been doing a lot of projects in our district,” Santiago said, without saying what project benefited her.

Jenner Pingul said David, an "honest and principled man" should have run instead.

Reporters from Pampanga and Metro Manila who trooped to the Commission on Election (Comelec) office in San Fernando extended hours of staking out after Macalintal announced Arroyo’s plan.

Comelec provincial supervisor Temie Lambino said his office would be ready for the filing of CoC either by Arroyo or her lawyers or representatives.

Ofelio Tactac, former regional legal officer of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, said what Arroyo did was “clearly a demotion undignified for any President.”

Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo, a native of Sta. Rita town, pressed for Arroyo’s resignation following her announcement.

“If she will run, she should resign from the presidency to give [other candidates] a fair fight,” Ocampo said.

He said Arroyo’s visits to the second district of Pampanga now meant “corrupting” the people.

“It’s a blatant buying of votes. She could have done that that long before, but she only did in the last few months. That’s obviously politicking,” Ocampo said, referring to Arroyo’s 47 visits in the province this year, most of them in towns in the second district.

Before Macalintal announced Arroyo’s decision on Monday, the President’s supporters in Pampanga on Monday started organizing a Mass scheduled for Tuesday (Dec. 1) to convince her to pursue her congressional bid.

The Mass, which will be attended by the President, will be held at the San Agustin Church in Lubao, Arroyo’s friend and gubernatorial aspirant Lilia Pineda told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The Mass is seen to be the culmination of a string of efforts by Arroyo’s allies to make her seek a seat in Congress.

At about 11 a.m. Monday, Pineda said she still did not know what Arroyo’s plans were.

Arroyo has been registered as a voter of Lubao, her father’s hometown, Comelec records showed.

Since September, Orlando Macaspac, Arroyo’s former adviser on police matters, has been distributing leaflets asking her to run for Congress.

Last Friday, Guagua town council secretary Jun Panganiban led some 300 Kapampangans in going to Malacañang to tell Ms Arroyo of their wish that she represent the second district in the House of Representatives.

On Saturday, members of the Pampanga Mayors’ League also went to the Palace to hand over to the President a copy of Resolution No. 77 through which the 20 mayors asked her to “heed the clamor of her constituency to run as congresswoman.”

In the same event, the President’s son, Represtative Juan Miguel Arroyo, asked his mother to serve in the same district where he is the incumbent representative.

Pineda expressed support for calls for Arroyo to run as representative.

“The effects of Mt. Pinatubo disaster are not yet over in Pampanga. We still need her help because I don’t know of anybody who has the experience and connections like her to help us in the province,” Pineda said in Filipino.

Not only the second district but the entire Pampanga would benefit from Arroyo being in Congress, she said.

Nila Saplala, a consumer leader in the second district, said: “Alang delicadeza. Ganid sa kapangyarihan. Alang marine. (She has no sense of propriety. She’s hungry for more power. She’s shameless).”

Businessman Rene Romero opposed the idea, noting that Arroyo had already served nine years or more than what a President of the republic regularly serves.

“It will not be a good precedent as we are becoming more and more fed up with the style of politics in this country. She should stay as a senior statesperson, just like our previous presidents,” Romero said.

Abel Soto, a college teacher, said it was not appropriate for Arroyo to run for Congress because “she will again have all the means to manipulate the political system and put herself into a much higher position.”

“It’s shows how power-hungry she is. Political sobriety is what this country needs right now,” Soto said.

Fr. Raul de los Santos said: “Every Christian knows the spirit of the law. Legally, she may [run] but the spirit of the law, I believe, says you’re through. So go and cut clean. Don’t hold on to power.”

Fr. Larry Sarmiento said people do not only live by their rights. “We have also what we call delicadeza, our sense of propriety and decency,” he said.

Already, a likely rival of Arroyo is complaining.

Feliciano Serrano who filed his CoC on Monday rued “unequal opportunities” as he prepared to face the President in the congressional race. With reports from Charlene Cayabyab, Inquirer Central Luzon