Speaker Gloria: The rise and fall... and rise again

Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Monday was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, marking her return to an influential post after spending a few years in detention on plunder charges.

Arroyo, a daughter of former President Diosdado Macapagal-Arroyo, was a professor of economics in a some of the country's universities.

One of her students was her successor, former President Benigno Aquino III, under whose term she was charged several times for plunder and graft.

One of the plunder cases involving the alleged misuse of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office funds led to her detention and hospital arrest at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center between 2012 and 2016.

No less than the Supreme Court cleared her of the plunder charges in July 2016, just weeks into the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

According to Raffy Tima's report on Balitanghali, Arroyo first served in government as an assistant secretary and undersecretary ay the Department of Trade and Industry.

She was senator for six years and was elected vice president in 1998.

Arroyo took over from Joseph Estrada after the latter was ousted by massive protests of EDSA Dos.

After serving the remainder of Estrada's term until 2004, Arroyo took back her words on one Rizal Day and ran for president.

She won over opposition candidate Fernando Poe Jr., who promptly put the election results under protest.

The protest was dismissed when Poe died of a stroke.

However, in 2005, the foundations of her administration were rocked by the Hello Garci controversy.

Voice recordings between a woman, believed to be Arroyo, and a man, believed to be then Commission on Elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano surfaced.

Investigations and impeachment complaints followed but Arroyo managed to end her term even after facing other graft-related controversies. —NB, GMA News