Thanks for contacting us. The phrase "he was times older than his sister." is missing numeric information (how many times older was he?)... please be certain all information is provided as text form.

the submitter clarified that Manuel was three times older than his sister three years ago

let 'x' represent Manuel's age, then 'x-8' represents his sister's age

3 years ago, then, Manuel was 'x-3' years old and his sister was '(x-8)-3' years old

three years ago he was 3x older than his sister:

(x-3) = 3((x-8)-3)

solving for 'x' we have:

x=15

15-8=7

Manuel is 15 years old, his sister is 7 years old