Remembering President Elpidio R. Quirino

THE nation remembers President Elpidio R. Quirino, the sixth President of the Philippines, on his 124th birth anniversary on November 16, 2014. The day is a special non-working holiday in his home province of Ilocos Sur, by virtue of Proclamation No. 1927 issued on November 15, 1979. Commemorative rites will be held at his statue in Plaza Salcedo in Vigan, infront of the provincial capitol, and at the Syquia Mansion, his Vigan residence, which houses his memorabilia and art collection. The colonial mansion, built in 1830, is owned by the family of his wife, Dona Alicia Syquia Quirino.

Quirino is remembered for the postwar reconstruction and economic gains of the Philippines and increased economic aid from United States. His industrialization programs – irrigation, hydroelectric plant, cement factory – helped provide jobs for Filipinos. He quelled the threat posed by the dissident movement in rural areas. He sent over 7,000 Filipino soldiers in the Philippine Expeditionary Forces to Korea during the Korean War. It was during his presidency that General Carlos P. Romulo became the first Asian to be elected president of United Nations General Assembly.

Born in 1890 in Vigan, Ilocos Sur to Don Mariano and Doña Gregoria Rivera Quirino, he finished his elementary schooling in Ilocos Sur and high school in Manila. He then worked at the Bureau of Lands and at the Manila Police Department. In 1915, he obtained a law degree from the University of the Philippines and passed the bar the same year. In 1919, he was elected to House of Representatives, and in 1925, to the Senate. In 1934, he joined the Philippine Independence Mission to Washington, DC, which secured the passage of Tydings-McDuffie Act, that set Philippine Independence on July 4, 1946. He was a delegate to the convention that drafted the Philippine Commonwealth Constitution. He served as secretary of finance and secretary of the interior in the Commonwealth government.

After the war, he was secretary of state and vice president of President Manuel A. Roxas, the first president of the Republic of the Philippines. When Roxas died on April 15, 1948, Quirino took over, and was elected president the following year for four-year term. His presidency was marked by “for the good of the masses” policy. He reached out to the People to alleviate their socioeconomic condition. He made Quezon City the Philippine capital through Republic Act 333. After his term, he retired to his home in Novaliches, Quezon City, where he passed away on February 29, 1956, and his remains were interred at Manila South Cemetery.