Elpidio Quirino was born on Nov.

16, 1890, in Vigan, Ilocos Sur,

the son of the warden of the provincial jail. Quirino taught
school while studying at Vigan High School and then went to
Manila, where he worked as junior computer in 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, first-grade.
After graduating from the College of Law, University of the
Philippines, in 1915, Quirino served as law clerk in the
Philippine Commission and then as secretary to Senate
president Manuel Quezon. In 1919 Quirino won the post of
congressional representative from the first district of Ilocos Sur.
He opposed Sergio Osmeña, the leader of the Nacionalista
party, and joined Quezon's Collectivista faction of the party. In
1925 Quirino was elected to the Senate. Quezon appointed him
chairman of the Committee on Accounts and Claims and of the
Committee on Public Instruction and to other important
congressional bodies. In 1931 Quirino was reelected to the
Senate. In the controversy surrounding the Hare-Hawes-Cutting
Law of 1933, he sided with Quezon.
In 1934 Quirino became secretary of finance. He was also one
of the drafters of the constitution approved on May 15, 1935.
When the Philippine Commonwealth was inaugurated on Nov.
15, 1935, he held the position of secretary of finance (1935-
1936) and then became secretary of interior (1936-1938). In
1941 he was elected as senator-at-large. When World War
II broke out, Quirino refused to join the puppet government of
José Laurel and became an underground leader of the Filipino
resistance movement against the Japanese. He was captured
and imprisoned by the Japanese military police in Ft. Santiago,
and his wife, two daughters, and a son were murdered by the
Japanese forces.
In 1945 Quirino became the leader of the majority in the
Philippine Congress and then assumed the post of president
pro tempore of the Senate. On the inauguration of the Philippine
Republic in 1946, he occupied the post of vice president and
first secretary of foreign affairs. In 1947 Quirino (who belonged
to the class of landlords, compradors, and bureaucrat-
capitalists) urged the adoption of the anomalous "parity
amendment, " imposed by the U.S. government in exchange for
independence, war damage payments, and other loans.
When President Manuel Roxas died on April 15, 1948, Quirino
succeeded him as president of the republic. For his weakness
in tolerating rampant graft and corruption in his party, permitting
immorality in the armed forces, and neglecting the impoverished
plight of the majority of Filipinos, he was very unpopular, and in
1953 he was defeated by Ramon Magsaysay.
As president, Quirino was many times justly accused by Filipino
nationalists of being extremely pro-American and even
subservient to alien economic interests. To maintain peace and
order for the sake of national unity, he granted amnesty to the
Huk guerrillas on June 21, 1948; but this measure proved futile
in solving the deep-rooted social injustice and exploitation
inherent in the country's semifeudal economy. Although Quirino
saw the need for increasing the appeal for loans from
the United States and establishing controls to protect local
Filipino industries and conserve natural resources, he failed to
act vigorously and sincerely in implementing drastic agrarian
reforms.
Quirino was elected president in 1949, when, according to
historians and newspaper reports, widespread terrorism and
violation of legal electoral processes occurred. He died on Feb.
29, 1956.
Further Reading