Evangelina Macapagal: ‘The Correct First Lady’

The title of this piece on former First Lady Evangelina Macaraeg-Macapagal comes from the coffee-table book on the country’s First Ladies, written by Lulu Coching-Rodriguez. Portraits of the First Ladies accompanying the book were painted by the author herself, an accomplished visual artist and daughter of National Artist Francisco V. Coching.

Mrs. Macapagal was noted for observing decorum all the time in social and official functions as First Lady from early to mid-’60s. She kept Malacañang Palace and its gardens spic and span. She herself inspected the nooks and crannies of the Presidential residence.

She spoke perfect Spanish which came in handy when dignitaries from Spain and Latin America came to visit. A Malacañang reporter recalled that one time the First Lady acted as ‘on-the-spot’ English translator when a foreign diplomat spoke in Spanish to local media which had a hard time understanding him.

Mrs. Macapagal had a peripatetic childhood as her father was a government engineer who was assigned all over the country. When the family returned to Manila, she continued and finished her medical studies at the University of Santo Tomas. She passed the medical board in 1938. Some years earlier, UST celebrated as a graduate topped the bar exams, Diosdado Macapagal.

They were formally introduced in the ’40s, falling in love with each other soon thereafter. They were married on May 5, 1946 in San Juan.

The future President was a widower with two children, Cielo and Arthur. She treated them as if they were her own. Mr. and Mrs. Macapagal also had two children, Gloria and Diosdado Jr.

Former President Gloria Arroyo said her mother took up medicine to take care of her sickly mother (Irene Macaraeg) and later her husband and children.

The Macapagals returned to private life in 1965, when he lost to Ferdinand Marcos. The former President died in 1997. Mrs. Macapagal followed in 1999.— RKC