When President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced her run for Congress, the social networking sites Twitter and Facebook suddenly went abuzz as people expressed their panic, their rage and feeling of helplessness.

The fear reeked like rotten raw fish all over the worldwide web.

But really, what’s there to panic about?

Come high noon of June 30 next year, the awesome powers of the presidency will fall off Mrs. Arroyo’s shoulders like water from an overhead bathroom shower.

Mrs Arroyo can be trumped in her own game. Except for Teodoro, it would be easy enough for Sen. Manuel Villar, Sen. Benigno Aquino III, ex-President Joseph Estrada and the other presidential candidates to ALL COME TOGETHER AND AGREE TO SUPPORT ONLY ONE CANDIDATE IN THE SAME DISTRICT WHERE MRS. ARROYO IS RUNNING. It’s for their own survival. [I heard Mrs. Arroyo's own half-sister, Cielo Salgado-Macapagal, is being urged to run for the country's sake. That would be one epic battle.]

Even Sen.Villar is not likely to want a Congresswoman Arroyo because he knows what will come next – she will intrigue against him and will likely to try to replace him by changing the presidential form of government with a parliament. That, in effect, would cut short the tenure of next year’s winner.

In addition, would her district in Pampanga commit suicide by intentionally starving itself of patronage funds in case her anointed, Gilberto Teodoro, doesn’t win? As a mere lawmaker, she will no longer be the prime benefactor of patronage funds but would in fact have to BEG for these funds from the sitting president.

The only reason her sons won in their congressional districts was they had mommy’s ear.

Sure, she can maneuver to be Speaker of the House, but only if her anointed, Teodoro, wins. Historically, whoever wins is likely to take control of the House since lawmakers inevitably jump to the winning party.

I was highly amused when, following Mrs. Arroyo’s announcement, her spokesman-lawyer Romulo Macalintal was asked about speculations that once she wins in Congress, she would push for charter change and her election as Prime Minister.

Macalintal bluntly said:

You know pardon this word, napakatanga ng ating mahahalal na pangulo ng bansa sa 2010 kung matapos gumastos nang napakalaking halaga at siya’y nanalong pangulo ay lalapitan niya ang isang Congresswoman Arroyo at sasabihin niya, Madame Congresswoman Arroyo, kayo na po ang maging Prime Minister ng ating bansa at ako po’y hindi po marunong na maging pangulo. E kung ganyan ang magiging pangulo ng ating bansa ay napakatanga ng nasabing pangulo.”

This is the rough translation of what Macalintal said:

You know pardon this word, stupid would be the word to describe whoever we elect president in 2010 if, after spending so much and winning, he would approach Congressowman Arroyo and say – Madama Congressowman, please become the Prime Minister of our country because I don’t know how to be president. If that’s the kind of president we will have, then how stupid can he get.

Among the five potential presidential candidates I interviewed this September and October – which included Villar, Aquino, Estrada, Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero and Teodoro – only Teodoro pushed for constitutional change.

And when I pointedly asked him – “Are you willing to have your term cut short?” – in order to bring about constitutional change, he replied at once – “Oh sure. Sure.”

Does that reply make Teodoro, a Harvard Law graduate and University of the Philippines College of Law bar topnothcher, stupid, because he’s willing to step aside for someone else, possibly his benefactor, Mrs. Arroyo?

Her run for Congress somehow undermines his run for the presidency. Because while she has distanced herself from him by stepping down from the helm of Lakas-Kampi Party in his favor, this is negated by her running for office.

Her possible victory could now make those who were willing to vote for Teodoro on his own terms now think twice and wonder if he is just a puppet on her string.