Pronunciation: (GLOH-ree-ah
mah-CAH-pah-GAHL ah-ROH-yoh)
Biography from Current Biography
International Yearbook (2002)Copyright (c) by The H. W.
Wilson Company. All rights reserved.
For most of the fall and winter of 2000,
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was in a ticklish situation: As the
vice president of the Philippines, she stood in direct line
to the presidency if Joseph Estrada--who had been publicly
accused of accepting bribes and kickbacks, and who was
facing an impeachment trial and widespread calls for his
resignation--left office. As is the custom in the young
Philippine democracy, Arroyo had run for vice president in
1998 on a separate ticket than Estrada, and was elected by a
direct popular vote. Nonetheless, Arroyo held a position in
Estrada's cabinet, and as such was entangled in the scandal
that erupted when, in October 2000, a provincial governor
publicly accused him of profiting on the backs of the
Philippine people. The eyes of millions of Filipinos fell
upon Arroyo. After consulting with colleagues Arroyo
resigned from her cabinet position and publicly joined the
opposition movement. She had the support of much of the
Philippine public: she is the daughter of a beloved
president; is herself a respected economist; served under
President Corazon Aquino and was twice elected to the Senate
(the second time garnering an unprecedented 16 million
votes). She is also a devoutly religious woman in an
overwhelmingly Catholic country, and thus was seen as a
natural foil to the earthy Estrada. A Sydney Morning Herald
(December 21, 2000, on-line) reporter summarized their
differences: "He is a high school dropout; she has a
Ph.D. in economics. He has mistresses; she has one husband.
He is porcine; she is petite. He is not exactly renowned for
his work ethic; her day starts at dawn. He once made a comic
virtue of his English verbal pratfalls; she is exceedingly
serious." When, in January 2001, Estrada was forced out
of office, Arroyo was immediately nominated to the
presidency, a position she accepted, according to her
inaugural speech as quoted in Newsday (January 21, 2001),
with a "sense of trepidation and . . . awe."
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, known popularly as
"GMA," was born on April 5, 1947 to Diosdado
Macapagal and Eva Macaraeg Macapagal. She spent her first
years in Lubao, on the northern Philippine island of
Pampanga, with her two older siblings from her father's
first marriage. But, when a younger brother was born, Arroyo
began spending a lot of time with her maternal grandmother,
who lived in Iligan City, on an island to the south.
Prompted by jealousy of her new baby brother, a
four-year-old Arroyo told her grandmother, "I'm going
to go and live with you because they don't love me
anymore," as she recalled to the staff of the
Philippine Daily Inquirer (December 24, 2000, on-line).
Arroyo remembered her grandmother's house as a
"kingdom," with a beach, a cold spring, and plenty
of surfing and playing to keep a young girl happy.
In 1961 Arroyo's life changed dramatically
when her father was elected president of the Philippines.
Diosdado Macapagal had risen from a humble background--his
mother washed laundry for a living while his father was a
part-time farmer and playwright--to become a successful
lawyer. In 1946, riding the wave of enthusiasm that followed
the Philippines' independence from the United States,
Macapagal entered politics and, after a successful decade as
a congressman, was elected president on a campaign promise
to clean up the government and enact land and other economic
reforms. At age 14 Arroyo moved with her family into the
Malacanang Palace in Manila and attended high school at the
Assumption Convent. Always at the top of her class, she
graduated as valedictorian and gained acceptance to
Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C., where she was a
friend and classmate of former President Bill Clinton. In
1968, after two years at Georgetown, she came back to the
Philippines to marry Jose Miguel Tuason Arroyo, whom she had
met while still a teen. She finished her degree at
Assumption College in Manila, graduating with a B.S. in
commerce. She then enrolled at Ateneo de Manila University,
where she earned a master's in economics in 1976. As she
told the Philippine Daily Inquirer staff, she studied
commerce and economics because her father had encouraged his
children to become entrepreneurs. As she grew older,
however, Arroyo realized that she wanted "different
things." "I wanted to be a teacher, I wanted to be
a pilot. Then I wanted to be a professional working for a
government." With these several goals in mind, she
enrolled in the University of the Philippines Ph.D. program
in economics.
Arroyo began her career as a teacher at
Assumption College. She then became a full professor of
economics, teaching first at Ateneo de Manila University and
later at the University of Philippines. Even as the daughter
of a president, she claims that she did not plan on becoming
a politician, but instead was drawn into politics through
the course of events. Arroyo's father served as president
from 1961 to 1965 and was widely admired for his efforts to
extend the country's rising prosperity to all its citizens;
however, his successor, Ferdinand Marcos, converted the
nascent democracy into a dictatorship and began to loot the
country's wealth for his own gain. In 1986, facing
international sanctions as well as opposition from home,
Marcos called for a general election in an attempt to
silence his critics. Although he was soundly defeated by
Corazon Aquino, the wife of a slain opposition leader, he at
first refused to relinquish power. Massive street protests
and the defection of the military forced him to step down,
and to acknowledge Aquino as president.
Aquino was a political novice, a housewife
and mother of five who, according to Pico Iyer's Woman of
the Year profile in Time (January 5, 1987, on-line), was
elected on a platform of "faith, hope, and
charity." President Aquino needed help, and asked
Arroyo to join her government as an assistant secretary in
the Department of Trade and Industry, where her
responsibilities included overseeing importation and
exportation in the garment industry. Arroyo became, in the
words of the Philippine Daily Inquirer staff, one of
"the brash young technocrats recruited by the Aquino
administration to reconstruct the country left wasted by the
corrupt dictatorship."
In 1992, after her three children were
grown, Arroyo decided to run for public office, and won a
seat in the Senate. Arroyo told the Philippine Daily
Inquirer staff that, in spite of what she termed the
"macho" Philippine society, the men in her life
were supportive of her political career from the very
beginning. When she first became a trade secretary, her
husband actually suspended his practice of law to avoid
accusations of improper dealings, "so that there would
be no importers or garment exporters trying to get to me
through him." Her husband then served as her campaign
manager in 1995, when she was re-elected to the senate with
16 million votes--the highest number of votes received by
any politician for any position in Philippine electoral
history. As a senator Arroyo gained a reputation as a strong
legislative reformer, authoring over 55 laws, including the
Anti-Sexual Harassment Law, the Indigenous People's Rights
Law, and the Export Development Act. She also raised
eyebrows by paying attention to the country's sprawling
rural population, hosting a television show aimed at farmers
and making trips to the provinces in the morning before the
afternoon session in the Senate in Manila.
In 1998 Arroyo briefly considered a run for
the presidency. She eventually agreed to be the vice
presidential running mate to House Speaker Jose de Venecia,
a presidential aspirant. Before Arroyo dropped out of the
presidential race, however, she was pitted against Estrada,
who, though short on political experience, was a former
B-movie actor with immense popular appeal. According to
Karla Delgado-Yulo, Arroyo once characterized the choice
between herself and Estrada as one between a "babae,"
or woman, and a "babaero," or womanizer. Arroyo
was elected vice president by direct popular vote, winning
by a margin of seven million votes over her nearest rival
the largest margin for an electoral victory in Philippine
history. Estrada was elected president, also by a huge
margin, thus ensuring that the "babae" and the
"babaero" would serve together in the same
administration. Although Arroyo had clearly hoped to work
alongside de Venecia, she accepted the outcome with grace:
"I received 13 million votes to Estrada's 11 million.
Seven million voted for both of us," she told a
reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald. "The message
was work together."
In a move that many interpreted as a peace
offering, Estrada offered Arroyo a position in his cabinet
as secretary of social welfare and development. Arroyo
accepted and proceeded to bolster her reputation as a
reformer, initiating an early childhood development program
and energetically seeking foreign money for welfare
projects. "When there is an earthquake, a flood or a
big fire," a correspondent wrote for the Economist
(April 15, 2000), "Mrs. Arroyo's agency will be seen
leading the rescue." During Arroyo's vice presidential
campaign she promised to promote "microeconomic
growth," which, she told Nora Boustany for the
Washington Post (June 25, 1997, on-line), should "have
meaning for the common man." This promise was tested
when, in 1998, a regional economic crisis spread through
most of Asia, compounding the challenges already created by
extreme weather conditions resulting from the El Nino and La
Nina climate changes. Even though the value of the
Philippine peso plummeted and unemployment rose, the country
did not suffer as much as other Asian countries, due in part
to economic reforms orchestrated under the International
Monetary Fund. "We have a cold while our neighbors are
experiencing the flu," Arroyo told Susan Kreifels for
the Honolulu Star-Bulletin (September 14, 1998, on-line).
"We had to swallow the bitter pill of reform while the
others were spoiled by protectionism. The Asian crisis, in a
way, was a blessing to the Philippines. It's shown we have
the fundamentals in place and it's a good place to
invest."
In spite of such accomplishments, the
distance between the president and the vice president grew
increasingly pronounced. During most of her tenure as vice
president, Arroyo did not air her differences with Estrada
in public, though the media frequently interpreted her
comments about the need for good government as implicit
criticism of her boss. The situation came to head in October
of 2000, when a provincial governor told journalists that
Estrada was personally overseeing an illegal gambling ring
that raked in millions of dollars. After this revelation, a
prominent cardinal called for Estrada's resignation, and an
impeachment trial--the first ever of an Asian president--was
launched. Arroyo, who was in Rome having an audience with
the Pope when the crisis exploded, acted quickly: after
requesting the Pope's prayers for her country, she resigned
her cabinet post and joined the opposition. In a speech at
the Ateneo de Manila University on October 29, archived on
Erapalis.net, a Filipino news site, Arroyo promised to
"undertake non-violent protest actions calling for the
resignation of President Estrada," adding that
"the times call for unity, action, and clear
commitment. There is no middle ground in this crusade. There
can be no more fence sitters." Although she refused to
attend any of the rallies held in protest against Estrada's
administration, she did begin to form a shadow cabinet and
what she called an "alternative national agenda"
to prepare for the eventuality of his resignation or
impeachment.
Arroyo was embraced by a broad range of
religious and political opposition groups, but she did face
criticisms. Some Filipinos thought that Arroyo had
fraternized too long with the scandal-ridden Estrada, and
rumors flew about her own connections to illegal activities.
She became the target of a smear campaign waged by Estrada
loyalists and even received death threats; someone sent her
a bullet in the mail. Perhaps the most damaging accusation
was that her break with the president, from whose downfall
she stood to profit, was a sign of her political
opportunism. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, in
December of 2000 a Christmas card was circulated with a
photograph of Arroyo smiling and holding a red rose, beneath
which were printed the words "See You in Malacanang"
(the presidential palace). Support for Estrada remained
strong among the country's poor masses in spite of the
mounting evidence against the president.
The tide turned against Estrada in January
of 2001 when his supporters in the Senate succeeded in
suppressing key evidence in the impeachment trial against
him. On January 20 thousands of Filipinos gathered before
barricades placed in front of the presidential palace.
Having been deserted by the military and declared unfit to
govern by the Supreme Court, Estrada finally agreed to step
down. On the very same day, Arroyo was inaugurated as
president. In her speech, as quoted in Newsday, she
implicitly criticized Estrada's administration, promising to
"promote a work ethic and dignified lifestyle" and
provide tangible results. She also thanked former President
Aquino, who less than two decades before had also helped
lead a popular uprising against a corrupt leader, and who
was the only other woman to have served as president.
"It was hard to ignore the sense of deja vu in Manila
last week," Brook Larmer wrote for Newsweek (January
29, 2001).
Since her inauguration Arroyo has been
forced to contend with a small but vocal contingent of
die-hard Estrada supporters who view her presidency as
illegitimate. (This is not a view held by mainstream
opposition groups: Arroyo's succession to the presidency was
unanimously endorsed by the Philippine Supreme Court.) In
May 2001, with Estrada still in police custody, several
thousand of the ex-president's followers attempted, without
success, to storm the presidential palace. Arroyo declared a
"state of rebellion" and had those suspected of
instigating the riots arrested. When the immediate danger
was past, she launched a charm offensive aimed at persuading
poor Filipinos--Estrada's political base--that she intended
to make fighting poverty a national priority. The campaign
was a success: Arroyo was handed a popular mandate when her
People Power Coalition (PPC) gained control of the
legislature in May 2001 congressional elections.
Nevertheless, a core of dedicated Estrada supporters remains
strongly opposed to Arroyo.
After the September 11, 2001 terrorist
attacks on New York and Washington, Arroyo emerged as a
staunch ally of U.S. President George W. Bush and a
supporter of the American-led war on terror. Soon after the
attacks Arroyo, as quoted by Mark Lander for the New York
Times (October 3, 2001), declared that the Philippines was
"prepared to go every step of the way, as needed"
in assisting the United States. Over the next few months the
United States dispatched several hundred American troops to
train Philippine soldiers in fighting Abu Sayyaf, a militant
Islamic group with past links to Al Qaeda. While many
Filipinos supported Arroyo, the arrival of American troops
also stirred painful memories of almost a century of
American military presence in the country. (The last
American military base was closed in 1991.) Estrada's
supporters seized on the controversial issue of renewed
American military presence in May 2002, when thousands of
the ex-president's followers once again converged upon the
presidential palace to call for Arroyo's resignation. The
issue surfaced again in July 2002, when vice president
Teofisto Guingona resigned from his post of foreign
secretary in protest against the American presence.
Although swept to power by a dramatic turn
of events, Arroyo has long had a role model for president in
her father, who passed away in 1997. "I am my father's
daughter in almost every sense, personally and
politically," she told Delgado-Yulo. Promising to
govern as humbly as he did, she told Delgado-Yulo that she
"would like to see in our political system a change
from a politics of personality and patronage to a politics
of party programs and institutionalized consultation with
the people."
Arroyo was named outstanding Senator by
several associations and publications, called "Woman of
the Year" by ASIAweek in 1995 after topping senatorial
elections, and also named "Woman of the Year" by
the Catholic Education Association of the Philippines. She
is married to Jose Miguel Tuason Arroyo and has three grown
children.
Suggested Reading: Economist p36+ Apr. 15,
2000, with photos; Newsday A p4 Jan. 21, 2001; Newsweek p40+
Jan. 29, 2001, with photo; Philippine Daily Inquirer
(on-line) Nov. 5, 2000, with photo; Philippine Daily
Inquirer (on-line) Dec. 24, 2000, with photo; Sydney Morning
Herald (on-line) Dec. 21, 2000