COMMEMORATING

QUIRINO
(Accepting the
Challenge)

His Excellency

Elpidio Quirino
6th President of the Philippines
In Office
April 17, 1948 December 30, 1953

Personal Details:
Born

Elpidio Quirino y Rivera

November 16, 1890
Vigan, Ilocos Sur

Died

February 29, 1956 (aged 65)

Quezon City, Philippines

Resting Place

Heroes Cemetery, Taguig, Philippines

Political Party

Liberal Party

Spouse

Alicia Syquia (m. 1921; d. 1945)

Children

Tomas Quirino
Armando Quirino
Norma Quirino
Victoria Quirino- Gonzales
Fe Angela Quirino

Alma mater

University of the Philippines

Profession

Lawyer

Religion

Roman Catholicism

Signature

Early life and career:

Elpidio Rivera Quirino (born Elpidio Quirino y Rivera; November 16, 1890
February 29, 1956) was a Filipino politician of ethnic Ilocano descent who served as the
sixth President of the Philippines from 1948 to 1953.

He was baptized on November 19, 1890. Quirino spent his early years in Aringay,
La Union. He studied and graduated from his elementary education to his native
Caoayan, where he became a barrio teacher. He received secondary education at Vigan
High School, then went to Manila where he worked as junior computer technician at the
Bureau of Lands and as property clerk in the Manila police department. He graduated
from Manila High School in 1911 and also passed the civil service examination, firstgrade.

Quirino

attended the University of the Philippines. In 1915, he earned his law degree
from the university's College of Law, and was admitted to the bar later that year. He was
engaged in the private practice of law. He was later inducted into the Pan Xenia Fraternity,
a professional trade fraternity in the University of the Philippines, in the year 1950.

A lawyer by profession, Quirino entered politics when he became a representative of

Ilocos Sur from 1919 to 1925. He was then elected as senator from 19251931. In 1934,
he became a member of the Philippine independence commission that was sent to
Washington, D.C., which secured the passage of TydingsMcDuffie Act to
American Congress. In 1935, he was also elected to the convention that drafted the 1935
constitution for the newly established Commonwealth. In the new government, he
served as secretary of the interior and finance under President Manuel Quezon's cabinet.

After World War II, Quirino was elected vice-president in the 1946 election, consequently
the second and last for the Commonwealth and first for the third republic. After the death
of the incumbent president Manuel Roxas in 1948, he succeeded the presidency. He won
the president's office under Liberal Party ticket, defeating Nacionalista vice president
and former president Jos P. Laurel as well as fellow Liberalista and former
Senate President Jos Avelino.

The Quirino administration was generally challenged by the Hukbalahaps, who

ransacked towns and barrios. Quirino ran for president again in the
1953 presidential election, but was defeated by Nacionalista Ramon Magsaysay.

After his term, he retired to his new country home in Novaliches, Quezon City, where he
died of a heart attack on February 29, 1956.

Economy
Upon

assuming the reins of government, Quirino announced two main objectives of his
administration: first, the economic reconstruction of the nation and second, the restoration of the
faith and confidence of the people in the government. In connection to the first agenda, he created
the President's Action Committee on Social Amelioration or PACSA to mitigate the sufferings of
indigent families, the Labor Management Advisory Board to advise him on labor matters, the
Agricultural Credit Cooperatives Financing Administration or ACCFA to help the farmers market
their crops and save them from loan sharks, and the Rural Banks of the Philippines to facilitate
credit utilities in rural areas.
Social program
Enhancing

President Manuel Roxas' policy of social justice to alleviate the lot of the common
mass, President Quirino, almost immediately after assuming office, started a series of steps
calculated to effectively ameliorate the economic condition of the people. After periodic surprise
visits to the slums of Manila and other backward regions of the country, President Quirino
officially made public a seven-point program for social security, to wit:
1. Unemployment insurance
2. Old-age insurance
3. Accident and permanent disability insurance

4. Health insurance
5. Maternity insurance
6. State relief
7. Labor opportunity
President

Quirino also created the Social Security Commission, making Social Welfare
Commissioner Asuncion Perez chairman of the same.This was followed by the creation of the
President's Action Committee on Social Amelioration, charges with extending aid, loans, and
relief to the less fortunate citizens. Both the policy and its implementation were hailed by the
people as harbingers of great benefits.
Agrarian reform
As

part of his Agrarian Reform agenda, President Quirino issued on October 23, 1950
Executive Order No. 355 which replaced the National Land Settlement Administration with
Land Settlement Development Corporation (LASEDECO) which takes over the responsibilities
of the Agricultural Machinery Equipment Corporation and the Rice and Corn Production
Administration.

Elpidio Quirino's five years as president were marked by

notable postwar reconstruction, general economic gains,
and increased economic aid from the United States.

While I recognise the United States as a great builder in this

country, I have never surrendered the sovereignty, much less the
dignity and future of our country.
Elpidio Quirino

THANK YOU
FOR
LISTENING!!!