Philippines' Arroyo to run for Congress again

MANILA: Former Philippine president Gloria Arroyo registered Wednesday to run for another term in Congress, despite facing graft charges and claiming to be suffering a serious illness that needs treatment abroad.

The 65-year-old posted on her Facebook page her certificate of candidacy for Congress in her home province of Pampanga in the 2013 elections.

Her spokeswoman Elena Bautista-Horn said Arroyo's son Mikey filed his mother's registration for her.

Arroyo served as president of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010, during which she was accused of numerous corruption and vote-fraud scandals.

Her arch-critic Benigno Aquino was elected as her successor, running on an anti-graft platform and promising to hold Arroyo to account for her alleged misdeeds.

However as she stepped down, Arroyo successfully ran as congresswoman for Pampanga province north of Manila and is now serving her three-year term.

She was arrested on vote-rigging charges at an exclusive hospital in November last year shortly after immigration authorities at Manila airport blocked her from leaving the country.

Aquino had said Arroyo was trying to flee the country to escape imminent charges against her, although she said she needed specialist treatment overseas for her spinal disease.

In July Arroyo was able to walk free after a court issued a surprise ruling granting her bail, saying the government's vote-rigging case against her was weak.

She has also been charged with corruption over a cancelled deal with a Chinese firm to set up a national Internet broadband network, but the trial has yet to start.