Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ended speculation about her future yesterday, saying said would seek a fresh term next year, reversing course after vowing she would not stand again.
In a speech to tens of thousands of supporters at the Clark special economic zone, Arroyo said she had changed her mind because the political unity she had hoped to achieve by her December announcement she would not stand had not lasted.
"I have deferred my retirement," Arroyo told her supporters at the former US air base in her home province of Pampanga. "I will offer myself to the electorate in 2004."
An aide to Arroyo said on Friday that Arroyo, a trained economist and daughter of a former president, had virtually made up her mind to run in the May 2004 presidential election in order to complete reforms and because of a lack of viable successors.
Expectation she would stand has apparently prompted desertions from the ruling party as would-be candidates begin to manoeuvre ahead of elections in one of Asia's most turbulent democracies, where personalities tend to count more than parties or policies.
The most prominent was Vice-President Teofisto Guingona, who quit the Lakas party on Friday saying he was disappointed with Arroyo's failure to follow through on reforms.
Arroyo said her policies had been hampered by "politicking" in recent months and she had decided to commit herself once more to achieving national unity.
"I will offer myself as the leader with the experience and vision necessary to change society, to achieve economic development and eliminate poverty," she said.
Her choice of venue for the speech was loaded with political symbolism.
The former air base is in Pampanga, her family's home province just north of Manila from where her father, Diosdado Macapagal, launched his successful bid for the presidency in 1961.
It also underlined her close relations with the US, the Philippines' former colonial master which now views it as perhaps its staunchest Asian ally in the war on terror.
Her speech was attended by up to 50,000 supporters waving the Philippine flag and chanting "Run Gloria Run". A priest blessed the devout Roman Catholic.
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