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Maria Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (April 5, 1947) is the
fourteenth and current president of the Philippines. Arroyo is the country's
second female president, and the daughter of late former Philippine President
Diosdado Macapagal.
A professor of economics, Arroyo entered government in 1987,
serving as assistant secretary and undersecretary of the Department of Trade
and Industry upon the invitation of President Corazon 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
what its advocates would ascribe to peaceful street demonstrations of the EDSA
Revolution of 2001, but which critics credit to a conspiracy among political
and business elites, military top brass and Catholic Church bishop Jaime
Cardinal Sin. Arroyo was sworn into the presidency by then-Chief Justice
Hilario Davide, Jr. at around noon on January 20, 2001 amidst the EDSA II
crowd, hours before Estrada left Malacañang. 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. Arroyo is nearing her 10th year in power and is
currently serving the 2nd longest presidential term in Philippine history, next
to Ferdinand Marcos.
In the 2009 rankings of Most Powerful Women by Forbes, she
was ranked as the 44th most powerful woman in the world.
