MANILA - Gloria Arroyo has survived attempted coups and two bids to impeach her during eight years as president of the Philippines, forging a reputation as a steely though unpopular leader.

The diminutive grandmother who is famous for her short fuse controversially announced Monday she would run for a seat in the lower house of parliament in next year's elections.

Opponents said Arroyo, 62, was planning to change the constitution so she could continue ruling the country as prime minister under a Westminster system of government, rather than the current US-style presidential model.

Arroyo became just the second female president of the Philippines in 2001 following a bloodless military uprising that unseated her populist predecessor, Joseph Estrada.

Some of her most significant achievements have been on the economic front, having repaired the government's wafer-thin revenue base by pushing unpopular taxes through parliament and opening up some sectors of the economy.

The Philippines' economy grew to a 31-year high of 7.3 percent in 2007. prompting Arroyo to declare the cycle of boom and bust for the impoverished Southeast Asian nation had finally been broken.

However critics said economic growth under Arroyo failed to help the poor masses and that the growth remained too dependent on the remittances of millions of Filipinos working overseas.

Arroyo is also known as the suspected voice behind a telephone recording in which a woman appeared to pressure an election official into ensuring the 2004 presidential vote count stayed in her favor.

Without admitting that she was the woman in the phone call or doing anything against the law, Arroyo apologized to the nation and later rode out two ensuing impeachment attempts against her.

She also survived two military uprisings that were sparked by the allegations that she stole the election from her rival, the now deceased film star Fernando Poe Jr.

The tainted result meant Arroyo never recovered her earlier popularity and opinion polls in recent years have shown many across the nation of 92 million people regard her as corrupt.

Fifty-one percent of Filipinos do not approve of Arroyo's performance as president and 52 percent have little or no trust in her, according to the latest survey by polling and research company PulseAsia.

The daughter of former president Diosdado Macapagal, Arroyo graduated at the top of her high school class at a Manila Catholic school.

She later studied in Washington's Georgetown University alongside future US president Bill Clinton.

She earned a master's and later a doctoral degree in economics at separate Manila universities and went on to teach the subject at the University of the Philippines.