In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 20 October 1918
- Died
- 25 July 1999
- Birthplace
- Manila, Philippines
- Country
- Philippines
- Nationality
- Filipino
- Known for
- Running a reform campaign in the 1965 presidential election and later leading Philippine foreign affairs after democratic restoration
- Senate term
- 1961–1967; reelected in 1987
- Presidential campaign
- Party for Philippine Progress candidate, 1965
- Foreign affairs
- Secretary in 1957 and 1987–1992
- Wartime unit
- Hunters ROTC Guerrillas
Why this life matters
Manglapus carried the reform politics of the Magsaysay generation into a third-party presidential campaign, an exile opposition movement and the diplomacy of restored democracy.
Timeline
Key moments
Born in Manila
Born on 20 October into a family active in public life.
Imprisoned and joined the resistance
Japanese military police detained him for propaganda activity; after escaping Muntinlupa, he joined the Hunters guerrillas.
Entered foreign-affairs leadership
Served first as undersecretary and then briefly as secretary of foreign affairs in the Magsaysay–Garcia transition.
Won a Senate seat
Began a six-year term and later chaired the Blue Ribbon and Revision of Laws committees.
Ran for president
Led the Party for Philippine Progress ticket against Ferdinand Marcos and incumbent Diosdado Macapagal.
Constitutional opposition and exile organising
Challenged Marcos’s succession plans at the convention and subsequently organised overseas democratic opposition after martial law.
Returned to government
Won election to the restored Senate and was appointed foreign secretary by Corazon Aquino.
Signed a proposed U.S. bases treaty
Signed the proposed Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Security on 27 August; the Senate rejected it on 16 September.
Completed cabinet service and later life
His foreign-secretary tenure ended in 1992; he died on 25 July 1999.
Education, wartime imprisonment and escape
Raul Sevilla Manglapus was born in Manila on 20 October 1918. His early education at Ateneo and law studies at the University of Santo Tomas belong to different stages of his training. The Senate profile records that he passed the bar examination in 1946; his later reputation combined legal work with oratory, journalism and political organisation.
Japanese military police arrested him in 1942 for propaganda activity. He was held at Fort Santiago and then Muntinlupa, escaped in August 1944 and joined the Hunters ROTC Guerrillas. Wartime imprisonment and resistance preceded his national offices, providing a distinct chapter rather than merely a preface to his presidential campaign.
Sources for this section: [1]
Foreign affairs and the Magsaysay reform generation
Manglapus became foreign-affairs undersecretary in 1954 during Ramon Magsaysay’s presidency and served briefly as foreign secretary in 1957, the year of the Magsaysay–Garcia transition. These early diplomatic appointments should be distinguished from the much longer foreign-secretary tenure he later held under Corazon Aquino.
Elected to the Senate in 1961, he served until 1967 and chaired the Blue Ribbon and Revision of Laws committees. Those responsibilities placed investigations and statutory scrutiny alongside diplomacy in his record. His association with reform politics therefore involved institutional work as well as speeches and campaign branding, although that association does not establish that every proposed reform became law.
Sources for this section: [1]
The 1965 third-party presidential campaign
In 1965, Manglapus ran for president under the Party for Philippine Progress, with Manuel Manahan as his vice-presidential candidate. The ticket offered a third choice alongside incumbent Diosdado Macapagal and challenger Ferdinand Marcos. The secondary electoral record lists 384,564 votes, or about 5.2 percent, for Manglapus: a third-place finish rather than an executive mandate. Marcos won the presidency.
A U.S. diplomatic assessment dated 5 November 1965 predicted that Manglapus might approach one-fifth of the vote. It was written before the election, not as a certification of results. The gap between that expectation and the recorded outcome illustrates the limits of his challenge to the two larger political organisations. The forecast is evidence of contemporary perceptions, not his actual vote share.
Constitutional resistance and overseas opposition
At the 1971 Constitutional Convention, Manglapus backed a proposal to bar Marcos from another presidential run and prevent his wife from succeeding him, according to Bantayog’s commemorative biography. This was an opposition proposal, not evidence that such a restriction took effect. He was abroad when martial law was imposed in 1972 and became an organiser of opposition from exile.
Through the Movement for a Free Philippines, he worked to reduce overseas support for the dictatorship, including lobbying in the United States. This account explains a specific mechanism of opposition rather than attributing democratic restoration to one exile leader. His return after the 1986 People Power Revolution brought that overseas political activity back into domestic institutions.
Sources for this section: [3]
Aquino diplomacy and the rejected 1991 bases treaty
Manglapus won a seat in the restored Senate in 1987, then left it to become Corazon Aquino’s foreign secretary, serving through 1992. On 27 August 1991, he and U.S. ambassador Frank Wisner signed a proposed Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Security. The arrangement sought to retain U.S. use of Subic Bay for ten years; it was not a proposal by Manglapus to close the base.
The Senate rejected the treaty on 16 September 1991, and U.S. withdrawal followed in 1992. Manglapus was the executive’s diplomatic signatory, not one of the senators casting that rejection vote. He died on 25 July 1999. His final cabinet period illustrates the difference between negotiating an agreement and obtaining the constitutional concurrence needed to sustain it.
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Raul S. Manglapus
- What does the S in Raul S. Manglapus stand for?
- It stands for Sevilla. Raul Sevilla Manglapus was a Filipino lawyer, senator, foreign secretary and organiser of democratic opposition from exile.
- Did Raul Manglapus win the 1965 presidential election?
- No. He ran with Manuel Manahan on the Party for Philippine Progress ticket, but Ferdinand Marcos won. The U.S. document forecasting his support was written before voting and is not an official result.
- What was Manglapus’s role in the 1991 U.S. bases treaty?
- As foreign secretary, he signed the proposed treaty with ambassador Frank Wisner on 27 August 1991. It would have continued U.S. use of Subic Bay. The Senate rejected it on 16 September; Manglapus was not one of the senators voting against it.
- How did Manglapus oppose Marcos from exile?
- He organised through the Movement for a Free Philippines and lobbied against overseas support for the dictatorship. After the 1986 transition, he returned to a brief Senate term and then the foreign-affairs portfolio.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Diosdado Macapagal
The incumbent president whom Manglapus challenged in the three-way 1965 contest.
- Corazon Aquino
The president whose foreign policy Manglapus administered after his return from exile.
- Jovito Salonga
The Senate president associated with rejection of the bases treaty Manglapus signed for the executive.
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. Senate of the PhilippinesSenator Raul S. Manglapus profile
Indexed institutional passages distinguish Ateneo schooling from UST law study and record his 1946 bar examination. The biography uses 1987 for his later foreign-secretary appointment rather than treating differing appointment and assumption months as settled.
- 2. U.S. Department of State, Office of the HistorianPre-election assessment, 5 November 1965 — FRUS document 317
This readable U.S. assessment was dated 5 November, before the 1965 election. Its projected vote share and other predicted winners are forecasts, not actual results.
- 3. Bantayog ng mga BayaniRaul Manglapus — convention opposition and exile organising
Indexed passages of a commemorative opposition biography support the convention proposal and exile organising. The organisation’s perspective is attributed, not treated as proof of enacted restrictions or sole responsibility for democratic restoration.
- 4. Senate of the Philippines Legislative Reference BureauSenate Record, page 686 — transmittal of the 1991 bases treaty
The indexed Senate record at page 686 reproduces the executive’s transmittal and identifies the 27 August 1991 signatories. The archive filename references a different legislative item; this is not a law ratifying the treaty or a claimed full-document reading.
- 5. U.S. Department of StatePhilippines background notes, October 2000 — U.S. bases agreement
The archived U.S. State Department account distinguishes the proposed ten-year Subic arrangement, the Senate’s rejection and the later withdrawal. It is an institutional account, not a neutral verdict on the bases debate.
- 6. WikipediaRaul Manglapus — presidential campaign chronology
The secondary entry supplies the 1965 ticket and its listed vote total and share; the original election canvass was not checked. Its disputed or insufficiently sourced anecdotes are not used to introduce new allegations.
- 7. Wikimedia CommonsPortrait and licence record
