ELPIDIO QUIRINO

 - The story behind the former President from Ilocos Sur-

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   Elpidio Rivera Quirino was born on November 16, 1890 in Vigan (now Vigan City), Ilocos Sur. He was a Filipino politician, and the sixth President of the Philippines.

   Quirino's six years as president were marked by notable postwar reconstruction, general economic gains, and increased economic aid from the United States. Basic social problems, however, particularly in the rural areas, remained unsolved, and his administration was tainted by widespread graft and corruption.

   After the death of the incumbent president Manuel Roxas in 1948, he succeeded the presidency. In what was claimed to be a dishonest and fraudulent 1949 presidential election, we won the president's office under Liberal Party ticket, defeating former president Jose P. Laurel and former Senate President Jose Avelino. After obtaining a law degree from the University of the Philippines in 1915, he served as law clerk in the Philippine Commission, the upper chamber of the legislative set-up at that time. With the approval of the Jones Act in 1916, the Philippine Commission gave way to the Philippine Senate; he then transferred to the latter. The new Senate President Manuel Quezon made him his secretary.

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   In 1919 he was elected as representative in his congressional district in Ilocos Sur, thus opening his political career. Not long thereafter, he married Alicia Syquia, a scion of a wealthy family in Vigan, on January 16, 1921. His wife and three of their children fell victims of Japanese massacre in February 1945 at the height of the Liberation Campaign in Manila.

   In 1925 Quirino was elected senator at the comparatively early age of 35. He was reelected in 1931 for another six-year term. In 1934 he was a member of the Philippine independence mission to Washington, DC, headed by Manuel Quezon. The mission was responsible for securing the passage of the Tydings-McDuffie Act, setting the date for Philippine independence as July 4, 1946. He was also elected to the convention that drafted a constitution for the new Philippine Commonwealth. Subsequently, he served as secretary of finance and secretary of the interior in the Commonwealth government.

   After World War II, he served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Vice President under the first president of the independent Philippines, Manuel Roxas. When Roxas died on April 15, 1948, Quirino succeeded to the presidency. The following year, he was elected president for a four-year term on the Liberal Party ticket, defeating the Nacionalista candidate, Jose P. Laurel.

   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 (aged 65).