“Please tell Gloria I insist that she runs.”

This was the unsolicited advice given by Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin to First Gentleman Mike Arroyo when the presidential spouse personally turned over a P1 million donation to the prelate yesterday.

“Tell Gloria to run,” Sin said shortly after he welcomed the First Gentleman at his official residence at the Archbishop’s Palace in Villa san Miguel, Mandaluyong City.

Witnesses said Mr. Arroyo was not even discussing politics with the Cardinal when Sin spontaneously asked him to tell the president she must run in 2004.

The witnesses included newly-confirmed Ambassador to Laos Antonio Cabangon Chua, Chua’s executive assistant Benjie Ramos and photographer BiboBenida, Fr. Aris Sison, parish priest of Sta. Maria dela Strada in La Vista, Quezon City and Malacañang photographer Nonilon Reyes.

The witnesses said Sin even expressed satisfaction over the increase in popularity ratings of the President and of the scheduled visit of US President George Bush to Manila in October.

“She should start going around the countryside,” Sin said in between their discussions on the beneficiaries of the donation.

The donation was part of the proceeds of the recently concluded First Gentleman’s Cup Golf Tournament in Wack – Wack, Mandaluyong City. Five hundred thousand pesos will go to the vocation of priests and another P500,000 for the vocation of nuns.

Sin thanked the First Gentleman with a rosary and pancit molo because he knew that Mr. Arroyo’s family has roots in Molo, Iloilo and that he loves pancit molo soup.

Before the 20-minute audience ended, the Cardinal again asked Mr. Arroyo to relay to the President that “I insist that she runs.”