Biography of Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo
By Radiyah Shakur
 Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo became the 14th president of the Philippines
on 20 January 2001. She is the daughter of the late
President Diosdado Macapagal who served as a reform
president from 1961 to 1965.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, born on 5 April
1947, was valedictorian of her high school class
at Assumption Convent. She attended Georgetown
University in Washington, DC and was a classmate
of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, and later
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.
Macapagal-Arroyo was elected as Senator during her
first try in politics in 1992, and re-elected in
1995 with nearly 16 million votes, the highest number
of votes in Philippine history. During her tenure
in the Senate, she authored 55 laws on economic and
social reform and was named outstanding Senator several
times. In 1998 she was elected Vice President of
the Philippines with almost 13 million votes, the
largest mandate in the history of Presidential or
Vice Presidential elections. After the Supreme Court
unanimously declared the position of President vacant,
Gloria was sworn in as the 14th President of the
Philippines on January 20, 2001, only the second
woman to be voted president by her country.
President Macapagal-Arroyo is married to lawyer-businessman
Jose Miguel Tuason Arroyo. They have three children,
Mikey, Luli, and Dato.
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