53 Facts About Diosdado Macapagal

Diosdado Macapagal served as a member of the House of Representatives, and headed the Constitutional Convention of 1970.

Diosdado Macapagal was the father of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who followed his path as President of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010.

Diosdado Macapagal first won the election in 1949 to the House of Representatives, representing the 1st district in his home province of Pampanga.

Diosdado Macapagal introduced the country's first land reform law, placed the peso on the free currency exchange market, and liberalized foreign exchange and import controls.

Diosdado Macapagal is 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.

Diosdado Macapagal stood for re-election in 1965 but was defeated by Ferdinand Marcos.

Under Marcos, Diosdado 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.

Diosdado Macapagal died of heart failure, pneumonia, and renal complications, in 1997, at the age of 86.

Diosdado Macapagal was a poet in the Spanish language, though his poetic oeuvre was eclipsed by his political biography.

Diosdado Macapagal was born on September 28,1910, at Barrio San Nicolas 1st in Lubao, Pampanga.

Diosdado Macapagal was the third of five children in a poor family.

Diosdado Macapagal's 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, Escolastica Romero Diosdado Macapagal, was a midwife and schoolteacher who taught catechism.

Diosdado Macapagal is related to well-to-do Licad family through his mother Romana, who was a second cousin of Maria Vitug Licad, grandmother of renowned pianist, Cecile Licad.

Diosdado Macapagal's family earned extra income by raising pigs and accommodating boarders in their home.

Diosdado Macapagal was a reputed poet in the Spanish language although his poetic work was eclipsed by his political career.

Diosdado Macapagal excelled in his studies at local public schools, graduating valedictorian from Lubao Elementary School, and salutatorian at Pampanga High School.

Diosdado Macapagal 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.

Diosdado Macapagal had two children with de la Rosa, Cielo and Arturo.

Diosdado Macapagal raised enough money to continue his studies at the University of Santo Tomas.

Diosdado Macapagal gained the assistance of philanthropist Don Honorio Ventura, the secretary of the interior at the time, who financed his education.

Diosdado Macapagal received financial support from his mother's relatives, notably from the Macaspacs, who owned large tracts of land in barrio Sta.

Diosdado Macapagal 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.

Diosdado Macapagal's dissertation had "Imperatives of Economic Development in the Philippines" as its title.

Diosdado Macapagal was assigned as a legal assistant to President Manuel L Quezon in Malacanang Palace.

The district's incumbent, Representative Amado Yuzon, was a friend of Diosdado Macapagal, but was opposed by the administration due to his support by communist groups.

Diosdado Macapagal was re-elected in the 1953 election, and served as a representative in the 2nd and 3rd Congress.

Diosdado Macapagal 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.

Diosdado Macapagal authored the Foreign Service Act, which reorganized and strengthened the Philippine foreign service.

Amongst the legislation that Diosdado 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.

Diosdado Macapagal was consistently selected by the Congressional Press Club as one of the Ten Outstanding Congressmen during his tenure.

Diosdado Macapagal's nomination was particularly boosted by Liberal Party president Eugenio Perez, who insisted that the party's vice presidential nominee have a clean record of integrity and honesty.

Diosdado Macapagal 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.

The Bible that Diosdado Macapagal used was later used by his daughter Gloria when she took her oath as Vice President in 1998 and as President in 2004.

The first fundamental decision Diosdado Macapagal had to make was whether to continue the system of exchange controls of Quirino, Magsaysay and Garcia or to return to the free enterprise of Quezon, Osmena and Roxas.

Such role of the government in free enterprise, in the view of Diosdado Macapagal, required it to provide the social overhead like roads, airfields and ports that directly or proximately promote economic growth, to adopt fiscal and monetary policies salutary to investments, and most importantly to serve as an entrepreneur or promote of basic and key private industries, particularly those that require capital too large for businessmen to put up by themselves.

Diosdado Macapagal savored calling himself the "Poor boy from Lubao".

Diosdado Macapagal prevented Diokno from prosecuting Stonehill by deporting the American instead, then dismissing Diokno from the cabinet.

Diosdado Macapagal appealed to nationalist sentiments by shifting the commemoration of Philippine independence day.

For having issued his 1962 proclamation, Diosdado Macapagal is generally credited with having moved the celebration date of the Independence Day holiday.

However, after becoming president, Diosdado Macapagal declared the importation illegal and instructed the Bureau of Customs to destroy the US tobacco shipments impounded in the docks of Manila.

Diosdado Macapagal offered a compromise in which every kilo of imported US tobacco would be exchanged for four kilos of exported Philippine tobacco.

Together with the Stonehill scandal, the Americans' refusal to pay war damages led to Diosdado Macapagal canceling a state visit to the US.

In 1962, he instead met with Francisco Franco in Spain, where Diosdado Macapagal delivered a speech about the Philippines having "historic ties" with its "mother country".

In July 1963, President Diosdado Macapagal convened a summit meeting in Manila in which a nonpolitical confederation for Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia, Maphilindo, was proposed as a realization of Jose Rizal's dream of bringing together the Malay peoples, seen as artificially divided by colonial frontiers.

Towards the end of his term, Diosdado Macapagal decided to seek re-election to continue seeking reforms which he claimed were stifled by a "dominant and uncooperative opposition" in Congress.

Diosdado Macapagal was defeated by Marcos in the November 1965 polls.

Diosdado Macapagal announced his retirement from politics following his 1965 loss to Marcos.

Diosdado Macapagal served as honorary chairman of the National Centennial Commission, and chairman of the board of CAP Life, among others.

Diosdado Macapagal published his presidential memoir, authored several books about government and economics, and wrote a weekly column for the Manila Bulletin newspaper.

Diosdado Macapagal died of heart failure, pneumonia and renal complications at the Makati Medical Center on April 21,1997.

Diosdado Macapagal was accorded a state funeral and was interred at the Libingan ng mga Bayani on April 27,1997.

Diosdado Macapagal is featured in the 200-peso note of the New Design Series and New Generation Currency.