Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is an economist, educator, journalist, public servant, and was elected Vice President of the Philippines in 1998. In the present administration of President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, she concurrently serves as Secretary of Social Welfare and Development.She is the daughter of the late Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal and and the late Dr. Evangelina Macaraeg-Macapagal of Binalonan, Pangasinan. Her childhood years were spent with her grandmother in Iligan City in Mindanao.
Gloria graduated valedictorian of her high school class in the Assumption Convent. She was consistently on the Dean's List during her two-year college stint at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where she and US President Bill Clinton were classmates. She graduated magna cum laude from Assumption College with a Bachelor of Science in Commerce. Later she earned a Master of Arts degree in Economics from the Ateneo de Manila University, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of the Philippines.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo began her professional career as a teacher at Assumption College. She later became Assistant Professor at the Ateneo de Manila University, and Senior Lecturer at the UP School of Economics. She joined the Philippine government during the administration of President Corazon Aquino, who appointed her Undersecretary of Trade and Industry.
During her first entry into politics in 1992, she was elected as a Philippine senator. In 1995 she garnered the biggest number of votes ever received by any candidate for any position in Philippine electoral history. In the last elections, she surpassed another record when she overwhelmingly won the vice-presidency by more than seven million votes over her closest political rival ... the largest margin ever attained by a candidate in a Philippine election.
As the economist in the Senate, Gloria was at the forefront of legislative efforts to build prosperity for the greatest number of Filipinos. She filed around 472 bills and resolutions. Fifty-five of these socio-economic measures have been signed into law, including: the Tax Exemption of 13th Month Pay; the Export Development Act; Loans for Women's Microenterprises; the amended Build-Operate-Transfer Law; the Bank Entry Liberalization law; the Thrift Banks Act; the Anti-Sexual Harassment Law; the Crop Insurance Law; the Indigenous Peoples' Rights Law; the Poverty Alleviation Law; the new Rent Control Law; and the Magna Carta for Scientists, Engineers, Researchers and other Science and Technology Personnel in the Government.
Vice-President Macapagal-Arroyo was named outstanding Senator by several associations and publications for several years. She was included by Asia Week in a select list of Asia's most powerful women, and selected Woman of the Year by the Catholic Education Association of the Philippines. She is married to lawyer-businessman Jose Miguel T. Arroyo of Binalbagan, Negros Occidental and they have three children, Mikey, Luli, and Dato.
