Philippines' Arroyo files for Congress run

SAN FERNANDO, Philippines, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo filed to run for the country's Congress Tuesday, making her post-presidential plans official.

Arroyo, followed by a mob of supporters, personally filed her certificate of candidacy at the Commission on Elections office in San Fernando, Philippines, the capital of her district north of Manila, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.

She had come to Manila from Lubao, where her supporters hosted a celebratory Catholic Mass and a short program that had the feel of a campaign rally for Arroyo and a farewell for her son, Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo, who is resigning his Congressional seat to allow his mother to succeed him, the newspaper said.

Critics say Arroyo, 62, is staging a post-presidential Congressional run in next year's planned elections not because she wants to serve the public but to retain her governmental legal immunity for alleged crimes her eight-year administration has committed, The New York Times reported.

In a taped message that a government radio station broadcast Monday, Arroyo dismissed such theories, saying the issue is "so hypothetical" and adding, "I won't even bother to speculate about it."