MAT CAPARAS

President's Name M. A. T. Caparas
Presidential Year 1986-1987
Theme Rotary Brings Hope
Home Town (Manila, Philippines)

Mateo Armando Tengco Caparas was born on 28 December, 1923 at Cuyapo in the Philippines.
His father, a lawyer, eventually settled on the family farm in Moncardo in the province of Tarlac.
His education, after he finished his secondary schooling at Bulacan High School in 1940, was interrupted by the Second World War.

He graduated from the University of the Philippines' College of Law in 1949, and received his Master of Laws from the Harvard Law School in 1950.

He returned to Caloocan, the city adjoining Manila to the north, to specialise in labour-law practice and tax cases.
He joined the Rotary Club of Caloocan as a Charter Member in 1959 and became its President in 1962-63.
He has served as a District Governor in 1964-65, as a Director and Vice-President of Rotary International, and as a Trustee of the Rotary Foundation.

In 1980, after he transferred his law practice into Manila, he was invited to be a member of "the first Rotary club in Asia", Manila, chartered in 1919.

In 1985, Caparas, as RI President-elect, introduced the Rotary Community Corps program which was adopted by the RI Board of Directors in 1988.
The "RCC" was envisioned as an organization of community members who wish to improve the places where they live or work.
One of the first RCC projects witnessed by Caparas was a water well in Cagayan de Oro, in the big island of Mindanao, southern Philippines.
When the water started flowing, there were tears in the eyes of women in the community; they no longer had to carry water buckets up a hill to their homes!

Caparas is the First and Only Filipino to become President of Rotary International. His term of office was from 1986-87 with the Rotary theme: ROTARY BRINGS HOPE.