CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – As President Arroyo again visited yesterday her Pampanga district for the third day in a row, Gov. Eddie Panlilio appealed to her to resign first from her post if she has to campaign for her reported congressional bid in next year’s elections.
“Out of wisdom and propriety, she should resign first even without the Supreme Court deciding on whether those in elective posts should do so,” Panlilio told Punto.
He was referring to the petition filed by one Henry Giron asking the Supreme Court to stop the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from implementing a resolution that would allow President Arroyo to run for Congress without resigning from the presidency.
Giron, head of the Article 64 Movement, said the possibility of Mrs. Arroyo running for Congress was among the considerations in his petition.
He said the Comelec resolution is based on a provision of Republic Act 9006, the Fair Elections Act of 2001 that repealed section 67 of the Omnibus Election Code. He insisted that “this provision was just inserted in R.A. 9006 in 2001 but did not undergo deliberations in the House of Representatives.”
Giron said that the resolution violated the constitutional right to due process, right to information, and the equal protection clause.
Panlilio, in an earlier interview, said that the President’s frequent sorties to her district this year constitutes “early and irregular campaigning” if she would indeed run for Congress in the second district.
He urged the President not to wait for the Supreme Court verdict on Giron’s case before resigning from the presidency is she would pursue campaining in her district.
Malacañang, however, has never categorically denied nagging reports the President will seek a congressional post in next year’s elections.
There are speculations that her son, Rep. Mikey Arroyo who is merely on his second term as congressman representing the district, will run under a sports-oriented partylist.
The President made yesterday her 43rd visit to Pampanga’s second district by again going to her hometown in Lubao to inspect either finished or proposed barangay projects.
Last Tuesday, she was in Porac also to inspect projects, following her visit last Monday to Floridablanca, both within the second district.
The regional office of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) said the President first went yesterday to Subic Freeport to attend the Sangguniang Kabataan National Congress before proceeding to Lubao.
In Lubao, she inaugurated the recently finished three-room elementary school building in Barangay Prado Siongco, and then inspected an irrigation canal proposed for rehabilitation in Barangay San Isidro before heading back to Malacañang.
“Out of wisdom and propriety, she should resign first even without the Supreme Court deciding on whether those in elective posts should do so,” Panlilio told Punto.
He was referring to the petition filed by one Henry Giron asking the Supreme Court to stop the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from implementing a resolution that would allow President Arroyo to run for Congress without resigning from the presidency.
Giron, head of the Article 64 Movement, said the possibility of Mrs. Arroyo running for Congress was among the considerations in his petition.
He said the Comelec resolution is based on a provision of Republic Act 9006, the Fair Elections Act of 2001 that repealed section 67 of the Omnibus Election Code. He insisted that “this provision was just inserted in R.A. 9006 in 2001 but did not undergo deliberations in the House of Representatives.”
Giron said that the resolution violated the constitutional right to due process, right to information, and the equal protection clause.
Panlilio, in an earlier interview, said that the President’s frequent sorties to her district this year constitutes “early and irregular campaigning” if she would indeed run for Congress in the second district.
He urged the President not to wait for the Supreme Court verdict on Giron’s case before resigning from the presidency is she would pursue campaining in her district.
Malacañang, however, has never categorically denied nagging reports the President will seek a congressional post in next year’s elections.
There are speculations that her son, Rep. Mikey Arroyo who is merely on his second term as congressman representing the district, will run under a sports-oriented partylist.
The President made yesterday her 43rd visit to Pampanga’s second district by again going to her hometown in Lubao to inspect either finished or proposed barangay projects.
Last Tuesday, she was in Porac also to inspect projects, following her visit last Monday to Floridablanca, both within the second district.
The regional office of the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) said the President first went yesterday to Subic Freeport to attend the Sangguniang Kabataan National Congress before proceeding to Lubao.
In Lubao, she inaugurated the recently finished three-room elementary school building in Barangay Prado Siongco, and then inspected an irrigation canal proposed for rehabilitation in Barangay San Isidro before heading back to Malacañang.
