Ambeth Ocampo

Ambeth Raymundo Ocampo (born August 13, 1961) is a Filipino public historian, academic, cultural administrator, journalist, author, and independent curator.

He is best known for his definitive writings about Philippines' national hero José Rizal and on topics in Philippine history and Philippine art through Looking Back, his bi-weekly editorial page column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Ocampo was born in Manila on August 13, 1961 to parents Belen Ocampo (née Raymundo), a jeweler, and Lamberto Un Ocampo, a civil engineer.

He received his primary and secondary education at the Basic Education Department of Ateneo de Manila University.

Ocampo began writing for Weekend Magazine, the Sunday supplement of the Philippine Daily Express in 1985 and subsequently joined its editorial staff as an associate editor.

In 1985, in an essay titled Are these fake Rizal drawings?, he questioned the authenticity of drawings that were purportedly done by Rizal that were used as visual aids in the noted biography of the Philippine nationalist: José Rizal: Filipino Doctor and Patriot by José Baron Fernandez.

Since 1986, Ocampo has published more than 35 books and other publications that have consisted of compilations of his various essays, and writings on Philippine history, arts, and culture.

Ocampo has also written several essays and monographs on Philippine art, beginning with his first book on Philippine modern impressionist painter Emilio Aguilar Cruz titled The Paintings of E. Aguilar Cruz published in 1986.

His column Looking Back first appeared in the Philippine Daily Globe from 1987 to 1990, and compilations of these columns saw new life as his two bestselling books; namely, the Looking Back series and Rizal Without the Overcoat that was awarded the National Book Award for essay in 1990.

He subsequently obtained his undergraduate and masteral degrees in Philippine Studies from the De La Salle University in 1989 and 1991.

Ocampo has also written on the history of Filipino cuisine that sprung from his undergraduate thesis Food in Pampango Culture published in 1989.

At the invitation of Letty Jimenez Magsanoc and Eugenia D. Apostol, Ocampo's Daily Globe column moved to the Philippine Daily Inquirer in 1990, where it appears twice weekly on the Opinion-Editorial page.

Most of his published works have focused on the life and works of the Philippine nationalist and martyr, Jose Rizal with Rizal Without the Overcoat going into six editions since its first publication in 1990.

He has also annotated the second edition of Rizal in Saga: A Life for Student Fans written by the late National Artist Nick Joaquin that includes newly uncovered research material collated by Ocampo and photographs from his private collection in 2021.

The issue later resurfaced in 1990, when Ocampo engaged in a heated word war with former Philippine politician Manuel Morato who published these drawings in the said book.

His undergraduate thesis Food in Pampango Culture centered on Kapampangan cuisine, while his masteral thesis centered on his recovery of the third unfinished novel of José Rizal, Makamisa during his term as a consultant to the National Library of the Philippines later published as Makamisa: The Search for Rizal's Third Novel in 1992.

He took graduate courses at the University of the Philippines Diliman, and later read for a doctorate in Southeast Asian History at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

He abandoned his London postgraduate studies in 1993, when he entered the Our Lady of Montserrat Abbey as a Benedictine monk under the monastic name Dom.

Ignacio Maria Ocampo, O.S.B. He subsequently left the monastery in 1997.

In 2001, he also co-authored an essay Grande Cuisine in the Philippines with Philippine food historian and academic Doreen Fernandez that was subsequently published on an issue of the British food academic journal Petits Propos Culinaires.

In addition, he has published monographs on other historical and cultural figures in Philippine history, including musical composer Nicanor Abelardo, historian Teodoro Agoncillo and Teodora Alonso, the mother of Rizal, amongst others.

Ocampo has written about the history of foreign relations of the Philippines including France, Japan, Mexico, Singapore and the Czech Republic.

In response, Ocampo has since released two compilations of his public lectures, Meaning and History focused on Jose Rizal and Bones of Contention on Andres Bonifacio both published in 2001, complete with citations and footnotes.

Nevertheless, Ocampo is considered one of the most prominent Philippine historians.

In recent years, he has written numerous articles on the diaries of the late former Philippine President and dictator Ferdinand Marcos compiling all known extant entries collated from six different sources, and annotating them.

The diaries have yet to be published in entirety.

In 2021, his fifteenth compilation of his columns of his Looking Back series written based on the diaries of Marcos and the legacies of the martial law regime titled Martial Law was published becoming his first publication on Philippine contemporary history.

In 2022, Ocampo became the subject of a massive troll attack from social media influencers with ties to President Bongbong Marcos after commenting on the controversial remarks of actress Ella Cruz who described Philippine history as "tsismis" (gossip), calling it "filtered" and "biased", that drew widespread condemnation on social media.

In response, academic circles composed of leading Philippine historians and academics led by National Artist for Literature Virgilio S. Almario, Xiao Chua, Francis Gealogo and others denounced the attack on Ocampo and issued messages in support of the historian due to the ongoing attempts of historical distortion on martial law regime of the late dictator.

Ocampo presently sits on the advisory boards of the Ateneo Art Gallery, the Ayala Museum, the BenCab Museum, the Lopez Museum, and the President Elpidio Quirino Foundation.

He served as Chairman of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines from 2002 until 2011 and concurrently as chairman of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts from 2005 to 2007.

When Ocampo was appointed chairman of the National Historical Institute (present-day National Historical Commission of the Philippines) in 2002 and later elected chair of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) in 2005, then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared that she was an ardent reader of his newspaper column, commending his writings because he "makes history so approachable."

Some academics have critiqued Ocampo for his populist approach to historiography.

Several of his essays were compiled in the ninth compilation of his Looking Back series titled Demonyo Tables: History in Artifacts published in 2015.

In 2019, a new version of the said book was revised, expanded, and published as E. Aguilar Cruz: The Writer as Painter.

Since then, Ocampo has worked as an independent art curator and has curated several landmark artist retrospectives and exhibitions on Philippine visual artists, including Juan Luna, Fernando Amorsolo, Guillermo Tolentino, Romulo Galicano, Arturo Luz, Benedicto Cabrera and Elmer Borlongan.

He has also written or contributed publications on the biography and art of several contemporary artists, including those of Spanish-Philippine artist Fernando Zóbel, visual artist and fashion designer Mark Lewis Lim Higgins and Randalf Dilla.

As an art historian, Ocampo has written several critiques on the controversies surrounding the Philippine art market.

Since then, Ocampo has continued providing commentaries on other issues on Philippine art, including the 2019 sale of Camote Diggers considered the last artwork by National Artist Botong Francisco and the provenance of an boceto of the Spoliarium by Juan Luna in 2018.

Consequently, Ocampo has also conducted extensive research on Philippine antiquities including Christian art, Southeast Asian ceramics, maps, and furniture.