25 Facts About Ricardo Manapat

Jose Ricardo de Leon Manapat was an activist, scholar, writer, researcher, and educator who was the Director of the Records Management and Archives Office of the Philippines from 1996 to 1998 and 2002 to 2008.

Ricardo Manapat is best known as the author of the book, "Some Are Smarter Than Others: The History of Marcos' Crony Capitalism", a work on anti-cronyism exposing the wealth of the Marcos dynasty, and as Editor-in-Chief of the "Smart File", Smart File Magazine Animal Farm Series.

Ricardo Manapat was born on May 24,1953, in Manila, Philippines.

Ricardo Manapat played piano and violin, and studied the clarinet and trumpet.

Ricardo Manapat was an avid and voracious reader, and he kept music and books as part of his daily life.

Ricardo Manapat completed his elementary, high school, college, and post-graduate studies at the Ateneo de Manila University, where he cultivated and pursued his interests in mathematics, physics, linguistics, history, economics, and philosophy.

Ricardo Manapat was fluent in English, Spanish and Filipino, and spoke German, French, and Italian.

Ricardo Manapat studied Latin, Portuguese, Arabic, Catalan, and Sanskrit in his later years.

Ricardo Manapat resumed his high school studies at the Ateneo de Manila, and obtained his college degree in Philosophy in 1976, graduating with Departmental Honors.

Ricardo Manapat was pursuing a doctorate in Economics at the New School for Social Research in New York, when he decided to return to the Philippines after the People Power movement led by President Corazon Aquino in 1986.

Ricardo Manapat completed a master's degree in Spanish at the University of the Philippines, while pursuing master's degrees in Mathematics and History at the Ateneo de Manila University.

Ricardo Manapat was the recipient of a Commonwealth International Student Scholarship and was awarded the DM Myer Medal as the most outstanding undergraduate student graduating in that Faculty in 2006.

Ricardo Manapat started working on the book in the United States in 1980.

Ricardo Manapat worked at Bear Stearns, a global investment banking and securities firm in New York City, in 1988.

Ricardo Manapat was first appointed by President Fidel V Ramos in 1996, and then by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2002.

Ricardo Manapat's work included the prior historical and architectural researches, the construction phase, and the soft-inauguration of the building in 1988.

Ricardo Manapat started the project to digitize all the important historical document holdings of the National Archives, storing them in computer media in order to preserve them and make them more accessible to the public.

Ricardo Manapat initiated the cataloging of the historical documents, resulting in the discovery of rare Rizaliana in 1998.

In 1998, Ricardo Manapat achieved the highest score in Civil Service Career Executive Service exams.

In January 2004, three National Archives staff members accused Ricardo Manapat of forging documents against the late Presidential candidate, Fernando Poe, Jr.

Ricardo Manapat was cleared of the charges by the Sandiganbayan.

Ricardo Manapat then went on leave from the National Archives to pursue a doctoral degree in Historical Sociology at La Trobe University in Australia.

Ricardo Manapat returned to the Philippines in 2008 to research and write his thesis, and to continue his various projects and studies.

Ricardo Manapat completed his Master's degree in Spanish on Rizal Studies at the University of the Philippines, and was working on his thesis for his Master's in History and Mathematics at the Ateneo de Manila University.

Ricardo Manapat died unexpectedly in his home in Antipolo, Philippines, on December 24,2008, at age 55.