Source: Manila Bulletin
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will not be an absentee president even at the start of the campaign period for local candidates this week, Press Secretary Cris Icban Jr. said Monday.
Icban, speaking to reporters in the Palace, said the President would continue to prioritize her work as the country’s leader before her congressional bid in Second District of Pampanga in the remaining months in office.
He admitted though that the President would likely visit her home province only during weekends to campaign so as not to disrupt her presidential duties.
“No, you have seen how she works. Wherever she is, she is running the country,” he said, when asked if the President could become an absentee leader when the campaign period for local bets begins.
Asked if she can run the country even from Pampanga, Icban said she can govern the nation “even from Mindanao.”
Prior to the campaign period for local candidates, Icban admitted that the President has often traveled to the Pampanga to meet her constituents every weekend.
“She is just visiting her constituents. It’s just a visit, which everybody is doing,” he said, when reminded the campaign period has not yet started.
He expressed confidence that Mrs. Arroyo could easily win the congressional contest in her home province due to the wide support from the people. “She has no problem getting elected,” he added.
On accusations the government is moving to disrupt the elections and extend the President's term, Icban said the President has repeatedly vowed to step down this June and ensure a smooth transition to the next government.
Mrs. Arroyo also made farewell tours in several provinces in recent weeks to highlight her government's achievements in the last nine years, according to Icban.
"If they insist thinking the other way, perhaps they think they will just make headlines," Icban said of the opposition groups that doubt the President's sincerity to relinquish her post.
Icban said the President's critics should also wait for a little while for the President's departure. "It's only a little over two months and the President has not done anything to indicate otherwise.
She is turning over the government to the next whoever is going to be elected," he said.
Asked if the President has started to pack her things in the Palace, Icban said he doesn't know. "She lives there and we work there. That's her private life," he added.
Meanwhile, First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo on Monday appealed to government critics who love to see President Arroyo go to just wait for a few more weeks before she exits the presidency.
The First Gentleman said he and his wife are actually looking forward to having more time with their grandchildren once they leave Malacañang at the end of June.
President Arroyo has promised to step down after her nine-year tenure ends but some groups have raised suspicions that she was plotting to derail the elections to perpetuate herself in power.
“It’s just a few months. All they have to do is wait,” the President's husband said in a chance interview with reporters shortly after welcoming boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao in Malacañang.
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