During General Pablo Morillo's expedition to Caracas, Puerto Cabello and Cartagena de Indias (United Provinces of New Granada), he took part in a military campaign to fight Simon Bolívar's revolutionary armies.

During this time, Ricafort was seriously wounded by a rifle shot in the bottom of the right leg; the bullet broke his tibia and fibula and left some shrapnel embedded in the skin.

In 1825, he was named Governor-General of the Philippines, arriving at Manila in October, and by a royal order also took possession of the intendancy of exchequer.

That year, the government bought the Malacañan Palace, which had been vacant since the death of its previous owner, Colonel Jose Miguel.

Ricafort's first task was to consolidate the absolutist system after the liberal phase of 1820–1823, and to that end in April 1826 he issued a Good Government Ordinance.

He introduced modern farming tools, and exempted Filipino farmers from paying taxes if they planted specific crops such as coffee, cacao, cinnamon or cloves.

During his term, he started the first Filipino insurance company in February 1827 and promoted the work of the Sociedad Económica de los Amigos del País or the Economic Society of Friends of the Country, which established the first papermill in the Philippines.

[1] In 1827, Ricafort sent an expedition against Jolo, which was repulsed by determined resistance from its inhabitants; in response the Spaniards burned the settlements on the shore, inflicting considerable damage upon the Moros.

In that same year, the Spanish government reestablished the naval bureau at Manila, now independent of the captain-general, and Pasqual Enrile y Alcedo was appointed as its chief.

[7] Due to the Agrarian Movement in 1745 and other uprisings in the Tagalog region, the Spanish failed to stop the growth of the Dagohoy community in the following years.

Upon Ricafort's order, determined to quell the rebellion once and for all, Alcade-mayor Jose Lazaro Cairo, at the head of 2,200 Filipino-Spanish troops, equivalent to two armed regiments, and several batteries, invaded Bohol on May 7, 1827.

[8] On his return to Spain in 1831, Ricafort requested the post of the Captaincy General of Mallorca, the Canary Islands or any entity that was vacant.