Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (born April 5, 1947) is a Filipino politician who served as the 14thPresident of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010, as the 12th Vice President of the Philippinesfrom 1998 to 2001, and is currently a member of the House of Representatives representing the2nd District of Pampanga. She was the country's second female president (after Corazón Aquino), and the daughter of former President Diosdado Macapagal.
Arroyo was a former professor of economics at Ateneo De Manila University where Noynoy Aquino was one of her students. She entered government in 1987, serving as assistant secretary and undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry upon the invitation of President Corazón Aquino. After serving as a senator from 1992 to 1998, she was elected to the vice presidency under President Joseph Estrada, despite having run on an opposing ticket. After Estrada was accused of corruption, she resigned her cabinet position as Secretary of Social Welfare and Development and joined the growing opposition to the president, who faced impeachment.
Estrada was soon forced from office by the EDSA Revolution of 2001, and Arroyo was sworn into the presidency by Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. on January 20, 2001. She was elected to a full six-year presidential term in the controversial May 2004 Philippine elections, and was sworn in on June 30, 2004. Following her presidency she was elected to the House of Representatives, making her the second Philippine president—after Jose P. Laurel—to pursue a lower office after their presidency.
On November 18, 2011, Arroyo was arrested following the filing of criminal charges against her for electoral fraud. As of December 9, 2011, she is incarcerated at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City under charges of electoral sabotage. - wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloria_Macapagal-Arroyo
