Ex-President Arroyo files COC for reelection as Pampanga representative 

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo shows media and onlookers at the Commission on Elections filing center at the Benigno Aquino Hall in the Pampanga capitol grounds her completed certificate of candidacy for the 2025 midterm elections for which she is seeking a second term as Pampanga’s representative to Congress. PHOTO BY TONETTE T. OREJAS, INQ

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Saturday, Oct. 5, filed her certificate of candidacy (COC) to seek second term in the 2025 polls.

In documents filed at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) filing center at the Benigno Aquino Hall on the provincial capitol grounds, Arroyo stated the Lakas-CMD to be her political party.

Pampanga Gov. Dennis Pineda accompanied her while local leaders from six towns in the second district came to express their support.

In an interview with the Inquirer, 77-year-old Macapagal-Arroyosaid her top priority for her third term was “to continue supporting the administration of President Marcos.”

She said she would also “continue representing the needs of the province and the district.”

Macapagal-Arroyo, daughter of former President Diosdado Macapagal, entered government service in 1987 as assistant secretary and undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry under then President Corazon Aquino.

After former President Joseph Estrada was ousted by the Second EDSA Revolution in 2001, then Vice President Macapagal-Arroyo was sworn in as president by Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. on Jan. 20.

She was elected to a full six-year term in the 2004 presidential election.

Arroyo was elected as the representative of Pampanga’s 2nd district in 2010 until she announced her retirement from politics in 2019 at the end of three consecutive terms.

But Arroyo came out of retirement to seek a comeback to the House of Representatives in 2022.
READ: Former President Arroyo seeking reelection as Pampanga solon