FORMER PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will seek a return to the House of Representatives in the 2022 elections, according to her son.
Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” M. Arroyo confirmed his mother’s congressional run for a seat under the province’s 2nd district in a Viber message on Saturday.
After holding the country’s top position, Ms. Arroyo ran and won a seat in the lower chamber from 2010 to 2019, where she became the first female House Speaker in 2018.
Ms. Arroyo entered politics in 1992 as a senator and became vice president in 1998.
She first assumed presidency in 2001 following the ouster of former President Joseph E. Estrada by the EDSA II protests.
Ms. Arroyo won a fresh six-year term in 2004.
Her presidency was surrounded by political and corruption scandals such as alleged rigging in the results of the 2004 national elections following leaked recordings of her and former Commission on Elections commissioner Virgilio O. Garcillano.
She also faced a plunder case filed by former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales for alleged misuse of funds of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office worth P366 million.
The charges were dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2016 due to insufficient evidence. — Russell Louis C. Ku