Diosdado P. Macapagal

His Excellency Diosdado Macapagal
Diosdado Macapagal in 1962
9th President of the Philippines
In office December 30, 1961 – December 30, 1965
Vice President	Emmanuel Pelaez
Preceded by	Carlos P. García
Succeeded by	Office abolished (established once more as a totalitarian dictatorship by Ferdinand Marcos)
2nd President of the 1971 Philippine Constitutional Convention
In office June 14, 1971 – January 17, 1973
President	Ferdinand Marcos
Preceded by	Carlos P. García
Succeeded by	Position abolished
5th Vice President of the Philippines
In office December 30, 1957 – December 30, 1961
President	Carlos P. García
Preceded by	Carlos P. García
Succeeded by	Emmanuel Pelaez
Member of the Philippine House of Representatives from Pampanga's 1st District
In office December 30, 1949 – December 30, 1957
Preceded by	Amado Yuzon
Succeeded by	Francisco Nepomuceno
Personal details
Born	Diosdado Pangan Macapagal (1910-09-28)September 28, 1910 Lubao, Pampanga, Philippine Islands
Died	April 21, 1997(1997-04-21) (aged 86) Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines
Resting place	Libingan ng mga Bayani, Taguig City, Philippines 14°31′11″N 121°2′39″E / 14.51972°N 121.04417°E / 14.51972; 121.04417
Nationality	Filipino
Political party	Liberal Party
Spouse(s)	Purita de la Rosa (1938–1943, her death) Eva Macapagal, M.D. (1946–1997)
Children	Ma. Cielo Macapagal-Salgado Arturo Macapagal (1942-2015) Ma. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Diosdado, Jr.
Alma mater	University of the Philippines University of Santo Tomas
Profession	Lawyer Professor
Signature

Economy of the Philippines under
President Diosdado Macapagal
1961–1965

Population
1962	${\displaystyle \approx }$ 29.20 million
Gross Domestic Product
1962	Php 234,828 million ($ 89.0 billion)
1965	Php 273,769 million ($ 72.0 billion)
Growth rate, 1962-65	5.5 %
Per capita income
1962	Php 8,042
1965	Php 8,617
Total exports
1962	Php 46,177 million
1965	Php 66,216 million
Exchange rates
1 US$ = Php 3.80 1 Php = US$ 0.26
Sources: Philippine Presidency Project Malaya, Jonathan; Eduardo Malaya. So Help Us God... The Inaugurals of the Presidents of the Philippines. Anvil Publishing, Inc.

Diosdado Pangan Macapagal (September 28, 1910 – April 21, 1997) was the ninth President of the Philippines, serving from 1961 to 1965, and the sixth Vice-President, serving from 1957 to 1961. He also served as a member of the House of Representatives, and headed the Constitutional Convention of 1970. He is the father of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who was the 14th President of the Philippines from 2001 to 2010.

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 election in 1949 to the House of Representatives, representing a district in his home province of Pampanga. In 1957, he became Vice-President under the rule of President Carlos P. García, whom he defeated in the 1961 polls.

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

As President, Macapagal worked to suppress graft and corruption and to stimulate 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, and was defeated by Ferdinand Marcos, who subsequently ruled for 21 years.