This year’s State of the Nation Address has evoked several stories, but the biggest so far was former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s installation as the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
In 2010, before Arroyo’s term ended, several analysts have considered her career in national politics over, after her administration was consistently plagued by corruption issues. After eight years and several years of medical treatment, she made her comeback to head the 17th Congress.
One of the country’s top economic minds, Arroyo, daughter of the late former president Diosdado Macapagal, graduated valedictorian from the Assumption Convent School in 1964. She later studied at the Georgetown University, where she was a dean’s lister while being in a class that featured former United States President Bill Clinton.
When she got her Economics degree from the Assumption College, she was magna cum laude. Her postgraduate economic degrees were from the Ateneo de Manila University (Master’s, 1978) and the University of the Philippines (Doctorate, 1985) — two universities where she also taught.
After the Edsa People Power Revolution, Arroyo was appointed by former president Corazon Aquino as Assistant Secretary, and later as Undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry.
Arroyo made her senatorial bid in 1992 and was re-elected in 1995, garnering over 16 million votes. In 1998, she was the running mate of presidential candidate Joe de Venecia, who lost to eventual President Joseph Estrada. Arroyo won, with one of the largest vote differentials in Philippine elections.
When Estrada stepped down from office in 2001, Arroyo was sworn into office during the so-called Edsa 2 rally.
In one of the most controversial presidential elections after the Edsa 1, Arroyo outlasted late actor Fernando Poe Jr.
Arroyo won, but not without issues: the legitimacy of her presidency was questioned, after wiretapped tapes of her conversation with Commission on Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano on the security of votes in Mindanao.
Before her term ended, Arroyo ran as the representative of the second district of Pampanga. Over a year after her term, she was placed on hospital arrest over corruption charges during her nine-year stint.