The year 2015 is the 125th anniversary of the year of birth of the second President of the Republic of the Philippines, and I would not like this year to fade into history without writing a few lines about the life and times of Elpidio Quirino. Vice President Quirino succeeded to the presidency when Manuel Roxas, his Liberal Party running mate in the 1946 election, died of a heart attack in 1947.
I want to write about the pride of Vigan, Ilocos Sur because Elpidio Quirino is one of the saddest figures in the history of the Philippine presidency. The generations that have come after the 1950s don’t know much about President Quirino. That is because after his failed re-election bid in 1953 the second president moved out of the public eye and went into a quiet retirement.
Elpidio Quirino lost the presidential election of 1953 partly—perhaps largely—on account of Nacionalista Party charges of extravagance and corruption in Malacañang. The opposition, led by his former secretary of national defense Ramon Magsaysay, charged Quirino with, among other things, purchasing a P5,000 orinola (bedpan). Magsaysay’s campaign staff really went to town with the issue of the alleged super-expensive bedpan, telling the electorate that the man in Malacañang had totally lost his sense of proportions.
That was very unfortunate for two reasons. One was Elpidio Quirino’s deep sense of personal honesty. No allegations of personal corruption followed the one-time teacher when he left Malacañang in 1953.
The other reason why the orinola and related charges were very unfortunate was the fact that they obscured and cast aside all the momentous work that Elpidio Quirino performed during his six years in Malacañang. It was the second president who presided over the rehabilitation and recovery of the Philippine economy from the ravages of World War II. Ramon Magsaysay inherited an economy that had been revitalized after three years of ruinous warfare and was on its way to becoming Asia’s second biggest (after Japan’s).
It’s such a pity that the Philippine electorate, dazzled by the exploits of the flamboyant Magsaysay, failed to accord sufficient value to the unflamboyant but steadfast efforts of the government that Elpidio Quirino headed for six crucial years. The Hukbalahap rebellion, the Korean War, the re-establishment of relations with Japan, the restructuring of political and economic ties with the US, the establishment of the Central Bank of the Philippines and the imposition of capital and import controls, the rebuilding of Philippine industry and the creation of the foreign service—these are the momentous tasks that Elpidio Quirino’s administration had to deal with.
By the end of his own four-year term Elpidio Quirino could justifiably say that he had completed his job. The Philippine economy had fully recovered from World War II and was poised for steady upward movement.
But all that was ignored by most of the Filipino people as they went to the polls in November 1953. All that they could think about as they filled up their ballots was the celebrated orinola and the subsequent tragic killing of Negros Occidental mayor Moises Padilla by persons believed to be associated with the military.
Elpidio Quirino was a good man and a very able leader who served his country well. For too long has his memory been badly treated by history. My wish—a wish that hopefully is shared by many Filipinos—is that one of these days someone will come along who will at least give President Elpidio Quirino the recognition and credit that has long eluded him.
E-mail: rudyromero777@yahoo.com