THE IDEA that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may run for Congress in the 2nd district of her home province of Pampanga in May 2010 exercises many of us. It strikes some as Machiavellian in the extreme, a calculated attempt to convert Congress into a unicameral parliament. It strikes others as a cynical stratagem for avoiding criminal prosecution.

In all likelihood, however, President Arroyo?s ?congressional option? is only part of a mix of increasingly unhappy choices she is considering, in her effort to protect herself and her family after June 30, 2010. The campaign to change the Constitution, by hook (a constitutional convention) or by crook (a Senate-less constituent assembly), seems her best chance of insulating herself from the political toxicity she correctly analyzed in December 2002, and of which she is, she said (again, correctly), one of the sources. Other attempts to postpone the elections, or extend the term of office of all elected government officials by a year or so, purportedly for synchronization purposes, do not stand a real chance. The merger of the two biggest political parties she heads ? Kampi, which she formed to pursue her presidential ambition in 1998, and Lakas, which adopted her when she decided to slide down to vice president ? is another part of the mix. In truth, it is the most unstable: local rivalries are tearing apart the political marriage in key areas even before the honeymoon period can begin, and the merged party does not have a heavyweight candidate for president to hold the flag and rally the troops around.

That leaves the congressional option.

Is there a legal barrier? None that anyone can see. Any president can run for lower office. Indeed, the American political system, from which we borrow ours, enabled two former presidents to serve in Congress after their term in the White House: John Quincy Adams in the House, Andrew Johnson (the first US president to face an impeachment vote) in the Senate. Even other political traditions allow former chief executives to serve in humbler capacities, for instance Winston Churchill.

Is there a political barrier? Speaker Prospero Nograles suggested there is, in the process unwittingly revealing a cynical view of politics. Ms Arroyo should not run, he said, ?because there?s nothing more to prove. She has been president that is the epitome of power.? This piece of unsolicited advice explodes the myth, propagated by politicians themselves that they run for office to render public service. But precisely because Ms Arroyo will no longer be the ?epitome of power? by June 30, she might feel the need for the protection of the more limited but still very real power of a representative.

Is there a moral barrier? Some religious leaders have said so, and it is difficult to argue with the democratic principle that we must give other citizens a chance. We certainly join many others in holding that it is in the country?s best interests that President Arroyo hold herself accountable for the scandals and excesses of her controversial rule. But self-preservation is a powerful instinct.

Do we have cause to worry that by getting herself elected to Congress Ms Arroyo will place herself beyond the reach of the law?s sometimes-all-too-short arm? The constitutional provision on parliamentary immunity (from Article VI, Section 11) reads: ?A Senator or Member of the House of Representatives shall, in all offenses punishable by not more than six years imprisonment, be privileged from arrest while the Congress is in session.? That tells us the immunity does not cover major crimes like plunder or murder.

Will we have cause to regret her election to Congress, if she succeeds, by political sleight of hand, in converting Congress into a parliament? Maybe, but the odds against that occurrence are higher than the odds against a no-election scenario. If President Arroyo has had great difficulty in pulling off a Senate-less constituent assembly, how will she manage the trick as a first-termer in Congress? She will be a congresswoman without direct access to the very purse strings she used to control, and which helped allow her to keep control.

There are risks to the democratic project, of course, if Ms Arroyo runs for Congress. But there are opportunities, too. As former Senate President Franklin Drilon said, she won?t necessarily be unbeatable. And if her son, Representative Mikey Arroyo, runs for governor, he won?t necessarily be the victor.