Diosdado Macapagal
Diosdado Pangan Macapagal Sr. was the ninth president of the Philippines, serving from 1961 to 1965. He served as the 5th vice president from 1957 to 1961 under Carlos P. Garcia. He also served as a member of the House of Representatives, and headed the Constitutional Convention of 1970. He was the father of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who followed his path as President of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010. Diosdado Macapagal Sr is one of the few presidents with doctoral degrees, earning a Doctors of Civil Law degree and a PHD in Economics degree from University of Santo Tomas.
Known as "The Poor Boy From Lubao", he was a native of Lubao, Pampanga. Macapagal graduated from the University of the Philippines and University of Santo Tomas, both in Manila, after which he worked as a lawyer for the government. He first won the election in 1949 to the House of Representatives, representing the 1st district in his home province of Pampanga. In 1957, he became vice president under the rule of President Carlos P. Garcia, whom he later defeated in the 1961 election.
As president, Macapagal worked to suppress graft and corruption and to stimulate the growth of the Philippine economy. He introduced the country's first land reform law, placed the peso on the free currency exchange market, and liberalized foreign exchange and import controls. Many of his reforms, however, were crippled by a Congress dominated by the rival Nacionalista Party. He is also known for shifting the country's observance of Independence Day from July 4 to June 12, commemorating the day President Emilio Aguinaldo unilaterally declared the independence of the First Philippine Republic from the Spanish Empire in 1898. He stood for re-election in 1965 but was defeated by Ferdinand Marcos.
Under Marcos, Macapagal was elected president of the 1970 constitutional convention that would later draft what became the 1973 Constitution, though the manner in which the charter was ratified and modified led him to later question its legitimacy. He died of heart failure, pneumonia, and renal complications, in 1997, at the age of 86.
Macapagal was also a poet in the Spanish language, though his poetic oeuvre was eclipsed by his political biography.
Early years
Diosdado Macapagal was born on September 28, 1910, at Barrio San Nicolas in Lubao, Pampanga. He was the third of five children in a poor family. His father was Urbano Romero Macapagal, a poet who wrote in the local Pampangan language, and his mother was Romana Pangan Macapagal, daughter of Atanacio Miguel Pangan and Lorenza Suing Antiveros. Urbano's mother, Escolástica Romero Macapagal, was a midwife and schoolteacher who taught catechism.Diosdado is a distant descendant of Don Juan Macapagal, a prince of Tondo, who was a great-grandson of the last reigning lakan of Tondo, Lakan Dula. He is also related to well-to-do Licad family through his mother Romana, who was a second cousin of María Vitug Licad, grandmother of renowned pianist, Cecile Licad. Romana's own grandmother, Genoveva Miguel Pangan, and María's grandmother, Celestina Miguel Macaspac, were sisters. Their mother, María Concepción Lingad Miguel, was the daughter of José Pingul Lingad and Gregoria Malit Bartolo.
File:Diosdado Macapagal Birthplace House, Lubao, Pampanga, Jun 2024.jpg|thumb|Diosdado Macapagal Birthplace House in Lubao, Pampanga, where Macapagal was born
Diosdado's family earned extra income by raising pigs and accommodating boarders in their home. Due to his roots in poverty, Macapagal would later become affectionately known as the "Poor Boy from Lubao". Diosdado was also a reputed poet in the Spanish language although his poetic work was eclipsed by his political career.
Early education
Macapagal excelled in his studies at local public schools, graduating valedictorian from Lubao Elementary School, and salutatorian at Pampanga High School. He finished his pre-law course at the University of the Philippines Manila, then enrolled at Philippine Law School in 1932, studying on a scholarship and supporting himself with a part-time job as an accountant. While in law school, he gained prominence as an orator and debater. However, he was forced to quit schooling after two years due to poor health and a lack of money.Returning to Pampanga, he joined boyhood friend Rogelio de la Rosa in producing and starring in Tagalog operettas patterned after classic Spanish zarzuelas. It was during this period that he married his friend's sister, Purita de la Rosa, in 1938. He had two children with de la Rosa, Cielo and Arturo.
Macapagal raised enough money to continue his studies at the University of Santo Tomas. He also gained the assistance of philanthropist Don Honorio Ventura, the secretary of the interior at the time, who financed his education. He also received financial support from his mother's relatives, notably from the Macaspacs, who owned large tracts of land in barrio Sta. Maria, Lubao, Pampanga. After receiving his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1936, he was admitted to the bar, topping the 1936 bar examination with a score of 89.95%. He later returned to his alma mater to take up graduate studies and earn a Master of Laws degree in 1941, a Doctor of Civil Law degree in 1947, and a PhD in economics in 1957. His dissertation had "Imperatives of Economic Development in the Philippines" as its title.
Early career
After passing the bar examination, Macapagal was invited to join an American law firm as a practicing attorney, a particular honor for a Filipino at the time. He was assigned as a legal assistant to President Manuel L. Quezon in Malacañang Palace. During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II, Macapagal continued working in Malacañang Palace as an assistant to President José P. Laurel, while secretly aiding the anti-Japanese resistance during the Allied liberation country from the Japanese.After the war, Macapagal worked as an assistant attorney with one of the largest law firms in the country, Ross, Lawrence, Selph and Carrascoso. With the establishment of the independent Third Republic of the Philippines in 1946, he rejoined government service when President Manuel Roxas appointed him to the Department of Foreign Affairs as the head of its legal division. In 1948, President Elpidio Quirino appointed Macapagal as chief negotiator in the successful transfer of the Turtle Islands in the Sulu Sea from the United Kingdom to the Philippines. That same year, he was assigned as second secretary to the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. In 1949, he was elevated to the position of counselor on legal affairs and treaties, at the time the fourth-highest post in the Philippine Foreign Office.
House of Representatives (1949–1957)
On the urging of local political leaders of Pampanga province, President Quirino recalled Macapagal from his position in Washington to run for a seat in the House of Representatives representing the 1st district of Pampanga. The district's incumbent, Representative Amado Yuzon, was a friend of Macapagal, but was opposed by the administration due to his support by communist groups. After a campaign that Macapagal described as cordial and free of personal attacks, he won a landslide victory in the 1949 election. He was re-elected in the 1953 election, and served as a representative in the 2nd and 3rd Congress.At the start of the 1950 legislative session, the members of the House of Representatives elected Macapagal as chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and was given several foreign assignments. He was a Philippine delegate to the United Nations General Assembly multiple times, taking part in debates over communist aggression with Andrei Vishinsky and Jacob Malik of the Soviet Union. He also took part in negotiations for the US–RP Mutual Defense Treaty, the Laurel–Langley Agreement, and the Japanese Peace Treaty. He authored the Foreign Service Act, which reorganized and strengthened the Philippine foreign service.
As a representative, Macapagal authored and sponsored several laws of socio-economic importance, particularly aimed at benefiting rural areas and the poor. Amongst the legislation that Macapagal promoted, was the Minimum Wage Law, Rural Health Law, Rural Bank Law, the Law on Barrio Councils, the Barrio Industrialization Law, and a law nationalizing the rice and corn industries. He was consistently selected by the Congressional Press Club as one of the Ten Outstanding Congressmen during his tenure. In his second term, he was named most outstanding lawmaker of the 3rd Congress.
In 1955, Macapagal ran for a Senate seat but he lost and placed 9th.
Vice presidency (1957–1961)
In the May 1957 general elections, the Liberal Party drafted Congressman Macapagal to run for vice president as the running-mate of José Y. Yulo, a former speaker of the House of Representatives. Macapagal's nomination was particularly boosted by Liberal Party president Eugenio Pérez, who insisted that the party's vice presidential nominee have a clean record of integrity and honesty. While Yulo was defeated by Carlos P. Garcia of the Nacionalista Party, Macapagal was elected vice president in an upset victory, defeating the Nacionalista candidate, José B. Laurel, Jr., by over eight percentage points. A month after the election, he was chosen as the president of the Liberal Party.As the first ever Philippine vice president to be elected from a rival party of the president, Macapagal served out his four-year vice presidential term as a leader of the opposition. The ruling party refused to give him a Cabinet position in the Garcia administration, which was a break from tradition. He was offered a position in the Cabinet only on the condition that he switch allegiance to the ruling Nationalista Party, but he declined the offer and instead played the role of critic to the administration's policies and performance. This allowed him to capitalize on the increasing unpopularity of the Garcia administration. Assigned to performing only ceremonial duties as vice president, he spent his time making frequent trips to the countryside to acquaint himself with voters and to promote the image of the Liberal Party.