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Gloria Macaraeg Macapagal-Arroyo (born April 5, 1947) is a Filipino politician who served as the 14th President of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010, as the 12th Vice President of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001, and is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing the 2nd District of Pampanga. She is the daughter of former President Diosdado Macapagal.

Early life and education
Arroyo was born Gloria Macaraeg Macapagal on April 5, 1947 in San Juan, Rizal, the daughter of politician Diosdado Macapagal and his wife Eva Macaraeg Macapagal. She has one younger brother (Diosdado Macapagal, Jr.), and two older half-siblings (Cielo Macapagal-Salgado and Arturo Macapagal) from her father's previous marriage. She spent the first years of her life in Lubao, Pampanga with her two older siblings. At the age of four, she chose to live with her maternal grandmother in Iligan City. She stayed there for three years, then split her time between Mindanao and Manila until the age of 11. When her father was elected President in 1961, she moved with her family into Malacañang Palace in Manila.

Arroyo spent her elementary and high school education at Assumption Convent in Makati, graduating valedictorian of her high school class. She then attended Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C. for two years, where she was a classmate of future United States President Bill Clinton, and consistently made the Dean's List while pursuing a degree in AB Economics. Her time at Georgetown was cut short by her decision to get married, and she continued to pursue the same course at Assumption College in the Philippines, graduating magna cum laude in 1968. She received her MA in Economics from Ateneo de Manila University in 1978, and her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of the Philippines School of Economics in 1985.

Arroyo met lawyer-business Jose Miguel Tuazon Arroyo, a grandson of late Senator Jose Ma. Arroyo, as a teenager during her time in Georgetown University, when she returned to the Philippines and attended the birthday party of a common friend in Baguio City. Their decision to get married prompted her to continue her education in the Philippines, and the two were wed on August 2, 1968. They have three children together: Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo (born 1969), Evangelina Lourdes "Luli" Arroyo (born 1971), and Diosdado Ignacio Jose Maria "Dato" Arroyo (born 1974).

Early career
Arroyo began her professional career working as an assistant professor in Ateneo de Manila University from 1977 to 1987, and concurrently as a professor at the UP School of Economics. She was chairperson of the Economics Department in Assumption College from 1984 to 1987. She also briefly held teaching positions at Saint Scholastica's College and Maryknoll College (later renamed Miriam College).

Arroyo joined the government of President Corazon Aquino in 1987 when she became Assistant Secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry. Two years later she was promoted to the position of Undersecretary of the department, a position which she held until 1992. She also served as the Executive Director of the Garments and Textile Export Board from 1988 to 1990. In 1989 she became Chairman and President of the UP Health Maintenance Organization, a position she held until 1998.

Senate
Arroyo was elected Senator in 1992. She was re-elected to a six-year term in 1995 with nearly 16 million votes, the highest number of votes garnered by a candidate any Philippine election up to that point.

As a Senator, she was instrumental in the passage of the following bills into laws: loans for women and micro-enterprises; the Bank Entry Liberalization Law; the Thrift Bank Act; the Anti-Sexual Harassment Law; the Crop Insurance Law; and the Magna Carta for Scientists, Engineers, Researchers and Science and Technology Personnel in government.

During her time as Senator, she also served as Executive Director of the Philippine Center for Economic Development, and as Chairman of the UP Economic Foundation. She was also a member of the Presidential Task Force on Tax and Tariff Reforms, and part of the technical working group for the long-term development plan of the Ramos administration.

Vice President
With her strong showing in the 1995 Senate election, Arroyo was considered a strong contender for the 1998 Presidential election. In the run-up to the election, she and her supporters founded the political party Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi), intended as a vehicle for her presidential campaign. Surveys in the year leading up to the election consistently placed her as a close second to, or even matching, the popularity of Vice President Joseph Estrada. However, in January 1998, she was persuaded by President Fidel V. Ramos and leaders of the administration party to instead seek the vice presidency as the running made of its presidential candidate, House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Jr.

Although De Venecia lost to Estrada in the May 1998 presidential race, Arroyo was elected Vice President by an overwhelming victory, making her the country's first female Vice President. In a field of nine candidates, she garnered more than twice the votes of her closest opponent, Estrada's running mate Senator Edgardo Angara. She won nearly 13 million votes, the largest mandate in the history of Philippine presidential or vice-presidential elections at the time.

Arroyo was appointed Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development by President Joseph Estrada, a position she held until October 2000.

President
The aborted impeachment trial of Estrada triggered the EDSA Revolution of 2001. Arroyo was sworn in by Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. as the 14th President of the Philippines after the Supreme Court unanimously declared the position of President to be vacant.

House of Representatives
In November 2009, Arroyo formally declared her intention to run for a seat in the House of Representatives representing the 2nd District of Pampanga, making her the first Philippine President to pursue a lower office after the expiration of their presidency. A petition seeking to disqualify Arroyo from the race was dismissed by the Comelec for lack of merit, a decision which was later affirmed by the Supreme Court. With little serious competition, she was elected to congress in May 2010 with a landslide victory. After receiving final military honors at the inauguration ceremony of incoming President Benigno Aquino III, she headed straight to Pampanga for her own oath-taking as congresswoman.

Despite being considered the strongest contender for Speaker of the House, Arroyo declined to seek the position, hoping instead to take on a role similar to Sonia Gandhi, who was influential as merely the head of her party. On her first day as a lawmaker, Arroyo and her son Dato filed a resolution calling for Congress to call a constitutional convention to propose amendments to the existing constitution.