Arroyo has been voted by the Free Press, the Congressional Press Corps, the Graphic and other periodicals covering the House of Representatives as Outstanding Congressman. (Some congressmen may be in a list once or twice but not all the time. Arroyo is always cited for his record.)

Arroyo's attendance is perfect. He did not miss a single session since 1992.

Each congressman has an allocation for his office and district expenses. Arroyo has the distinction of having spent the least among the 217 members of the House. He has never traveled abroad at government expense. He has hired only two out of seven employees allotted to each congressman.

In the Ninth Congress (1992-95) Arroyo is remembered for his stand on the following issues:

• He exposed the P150-billion behest loans of Marcos cronies, which the taxpayers are still paying for.
  
• Opposed the enactment of the Banko Sentral Act, which passé on the Central Bank's losses of P301 billion to the taxpayers.
  
• Co-sponsored the resolutions 1) putting a cap on the amount of debt the government can incur and 2) repealing the automatic appropriation, without need of legislative scrutiny, for the servicing of the government's public debts.
  
• Opposed the bill imposing the death penalty because it is antipoor. From 1926 to 1972, there were roughly 78 convicts who were sentenced to die by electrocution. Only seven of them were well-off, 71 all came from poor families who did not have adequate representation

In the Tenth Congress (1995-98) Arroyo is remembered for his involvement in these very important issues:

• He opposed the sale of Petron, arguing that our neighbors in the entire East Asia all have a national oil company. We have one already, why sell it? Arroyo posited the possibility that the sale of Petron was for fund-raising purposes of Lakas in the 1995 elections.
  
• Opposed the oil-industry deregulation law, arguing that, after having sold Petron, the government can no longer go for full deregulation. A national oil company like Petron is indispensable to full deregulation, as shown by the experience of our Asian neighbors. (Despite these arguments, Congress enacted the deregulation law anyway. Arroyo and other oppositionists challenged the law before the Supreme Court, which eventually declared it unconstitutional.)
  
• Opposed the third component of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program which refers to personal and corporate income tax. Corporations were given more benefits than the individual poor taxpayers.
  
• Fought the resolution to amend the Constitution that would have ensured the extension of terms of office of President Ramos and other elective officials

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