Diosdado Macapagal (1910-1997), fifth president of the Republic of the Philippines (1961-1965), vice president (1957-1961), Liberal Party leader (1957-1961), and member of the Philippine legislature (1949-1957).

Diosdado Pañgan Macapagal was born in Lubao, Pampanga Province, and grew up in abject poverty. Macapagal was a dedicated student, however, and earned an associate of arts degree in 1932 from the University of the Philippines in Manila. With financial help from philanthropist Honorio Ventura, Macapagal attended the University of Santo Tomás Law School, where he acquired an outstanding scholastic record. In 1936 he earned his bachelor of laws degree and became a member of the bar. He later returned to his alma mater to earn a master’s degree in law in 1941, a doctorate of civil laws in 1947, and a doctorate of philosophy in economics in 1957.

In 1941 Macapagal served briefly as legal assistant in the office of Philippine president Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina and, later that year, became a professor of law at the University of Santo Tomás. When Japan invaded the Philippines during World War II (1939-1945), Macapagal became an intelligence agent in the anti-Japanese underground. From 1946 to 1949 he served concurrently in his professorship and in the legal division of the Department of Foreign Affairs. From 1949 to 1957 he was a Liberal Party member of the Philippine House of Representatives. As chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs from 1950 to 1953, Macapagal distinguished himself in international politics. In 1951 he served as chairman of the Philippine delegation to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly meeting in Paris and helped negotiate a mutual defense treaty with the United States and a

peace treaty with Japan. During his years as a legislator, he continued to practice and teach law.In November 1957 Macapagal was elected vice president of the Philippines on the Liberal Party ticket, polling 116,940 more votes than the winner of the presidential race, Carlos García of the Nationalist Party. (Voters may split their ballots for president and vice president in the Philippines.) The following month Macapagal was chosen as titular head of the Liberal Party. Macapagal held an anomalous position as opposition leader; when offered a post in the cabinet if he would join the Nationalist Party, he refused, and consequently he served as vice president under García with only ceremonial duties. In the tradition of former Philippine president Ramón Magsaysay, Macapagal sought close contact with the people throughout his term as vice president. In January 1961 the Liberal Party nominated Macapagal as its candidate for the presidency, and in November elections he won a decisive victory over incumbent García to become the fifth president of the Philippines. Macapagal immediately cracked down on government graft and corruption. His campaign earned him the nickname The Incorruptible. He sought to maintain strong ties with the United States and was an outspoken opponent of Communism. He pursued largely unsuccessful economic programs that abolished repressive government controls in an attempt to stimulate the economy and increase employment. In 1965 he lost his bid for a second term to the Nationalist candidate, Ferdinand Marcos. Macapagal remained politically active, notably as the elected president of the 1971 Constitutional Convention that intended to revise the American-authored 1935 constitution. However, all democratic reforms were halted when Marcos declared martial law in 1972.