Mateo Armando “M.A.T.” T. Caparas served as RI president in 1986-87 with the Rotary theme, “Rotary Brings Hope.” He was the first and only Filipino to become president of Rotary International, he died at the age of 97. He championed Rotary’s earliest efforts to fight polio and created the program that became Rotary Community Corps. He was a charter member of Rotary Club of Caloocan City that was organized in 1959. When he transferred his law practice in Manila, Caparas joined the Rotary Club of Manila, known as the first Rotary Club in Asia for having been chartered in 1919.
