GMA no longer on Forbes power list

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – From fourth rank in 2005, to No. 41 in 2008, to No. 44 in 2009, former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is no longer on the list of Forbes.com’s 100 most powerful women in the world for this year.

US First Lady Michelle Obama zoomed to the top of the list this year as she has been described to have made the office of first lady her own.

The Forbes list came out as Arroyo appeared for the first time before the Department of Justice to answer a plunder case filed against her.

Forbes noted Obama, a Harvard-schooled lawyer, to be a forceful advocate of school nutrition standards and military familiesaffairs, being more involved in policy.

“But unlike Hillary Clinton, who championed a secretive (and ultimately unsuccessful) health care reform, Obama has stayed away from hard policy. A fashion icon and an athletic mother of two, she’s Jackie Kennedy with a law degree from Harvard and street sense from Chicago’s South Side, Forbes said of Obama.

Singapore’s Ho Ching, chief executive of Temasek Holdings, and Chua Sock Koong, group chief executive of Singapore Telecommunications, as well China’s Sun Yafang, chair of Huawei Technologies, were the only Asians who made it to this year’s list at 30th ,71st, and 90th places, respectively.