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GMA wants private life after 2010 polls
Manila Times
16 May 2009 | 12:10 AM

By Bernice Camille V. Bauzon, Reporter

President Gloria Arroyo would leave politics for good in 2010, a Roman Catholic bishop close to her revealed on Friday. In a report published by the news website of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Butuan Bishop Juan de Dios Pueblos disclosed that President Arroyo personally promised him last year that she would bow out of office at the end of her term next year. Elections scheduled for May 2010 will pick the Presidents successor.

Yes, she expressed it openly [to me] that [there will be] no more [politics for her after the 2010 polls]. She will live a private life [after those elections], Pueblos said.

The Butuan bishops disclosure came amid reports that Mrs. Arroyo would run for prime minister if a parliamentary system was installed under amendments to the 1987 Constitution that supposedly are being pushed by her allies in Congress.

Mere rumors, Malacaang on Thursday described such reports, including one derived from a statement of Rep. Victor Ortega of La Union and a few others supposedly fueled by the political opposition.

According to Press Secretary Cerge Remonde, the President was more concerned with generating jobs, combating poverty and improving infrastructure projects, not with staying in power beyond 2010.

Bid for premiership

Earlier, Makati City Mayor and United Opposition President Jejomar Binay said that President Arroyos supposed plans to run for a congressional seat in Pampanga province in 2010 is an open secret there. The Arroyos hail from Lubao town of the province.

According to Pueblos, the country needs another leader to continue the good things that the President has done for the country.

There are many people who want to make use of her [experience] so they want her to remain in power, he said.

But, Pueblos added, he told Mrs. Arroyo not to be swayed by the nudging of these people.

My advice to her [was for her to] not continue in power but to leave a good legacy [to the country], the Butuan bishop said.

Born in Loon, Bohol province, Pueblos, 66, was ordained in 1985. From 1984, he was the school chaplain of Assumption College in Makati City (Metro Manila). The exclusive all-girls school, when it was still called Assumption Convent, was the high school alma mater of Mrs. Arroyo.

In December 2003, Mrs. Arroyo in a speech announced that she would not be running for the presidency in order to stop the unending divisiveness in the country. But months later, in the May 2004 elections, she toppled show-business royalty Fernando Poe Jr. in a controversial win to take the highest public office in the land.

In 2001, then Vice-President Arroyo was catapulted to Malacaang by Edsa 2, a people-power revolt that ousted President Joseph Estrada over alleged plunder.

Estrada was found guilty in 2007 but was later granted executive clemency by Mrs. Arroyo. He recently announced that he would again bid for the presidency in the 2010 elections if the political oppositionof which he is considered the titular headfailed to unite behind a standard-bearer.

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