Diosdado Macapagal - Ninth President

Fifth President of the Third Republic

Diosdado Pangan Macapagal (September 28, 1910 ? April 21, 1997) was a Filipino statesman who served as the 9th President of the Philippines. He was elected in 1961, defeating the re-election bid of Carlos P. Garcia. He did not win in his own re-election bid in 1965, losing to Ferdinand Marcos. He was also known by his nickname "The Incorruptible". His daughter, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, is the current president of the Philippines.
He is also known for changing the day of Philippine Independence, which was then July 4, 1946, into June 12, 1898 Macapagal was born in Lubao, Pampanga, to Urbano Macapagal and Romana Pangan. He graduated valedictorian in the Lubao Elementary School, graduated with second highest rating in the Pampanga High School. His family was poor (hence his nickname "poor boy from Lubao"), but with the help of Honorio Ventura, the Secretary of Interior at that time, he studied law and graduated in the University of Santo Tomas and pursued and earned the postgraduate degree of Doctor of Civil Law and Ph.D. in Economics in the same university. He finished his law degree in 1936 and was the bar topnotcher when he took the bar examination in the same year with a rating of 89.95 In 1971, Macapagal was elected president of the constitutional convention that drafted what became the 1973 constitution. He passed away in April 21, 1997 at aged 86 in Makati City, Metro Manila

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