President Quirino’s reelection campaign in Cebu

President Elpidio Quirino came to Cebu on April 9, 1953, and this is the official report:

“Upward of 200,000 people gathered at the pier and at the plaza of Cebu to welcome the President. The mammoth demonstration started at the entrance of Cebu harbor. Launches, barges, and tugs with multicolored flags and buntings took part in the colorful fluvial parade.

“The yacht Apo carrying the President entered Cebu harbor at 8. 30 a.m., and for 30 minutes the launches, tugboats, and big ocean and sea steamers in the harbor joined to give ear-splitting sirens. At the pier fireworks joined the noise that gave Cebu City the semblance of Manila’s New Year celebration. Governor Sergio Osmeña, Jr., with provincial and municipal officials of Cebu province boarded the Apo as it steamed into the harbor. Gun salute greeted the President as he came down the gangplank, and shouts of Mabuhay rent the air. It was significant that Nacionalista stalwarts of the province like Provincial Board Member Sotero Cabahug were on hand” to welcome the President. At the Plaza Independencia, Governor Osmeña presented to the President a resolution written on a scroll and signed by 50 but of the 52 Cebu mayors, pledging to support the President’s re-election “without mental reservation.

“In his extemporaneous speech at Plaza Independencia, the President placed squarely the eradication of graft and corruption as one of his reelection issues. He said that it was merely on this issue that he had won the election of 1949, and that on this issue he would win again in the coming elections. The President was roundly applauded when he recalled how he had restored democracy in the holding of clean elections in Cebu, which he did by backing up the Osmeña group. In so acting, he said, he had to break away from old political friends and that as a consequence he had become a “political leper” to some politicians who attack him everywhere, even in Congress. Before the Chief Executive spoke, he inducted into office Vicente del Rosario and Carlos Cuizon as acting mayor and acting vice mayor of Cebu City, respectively.

“At a luncheon given in his honor by various civic organizations in Cebu at the Club Filipino, the President called on civic organizations in Cebu to dovetail their constructive efforts with those of the government program of economic development and industrialization and assume the responsibility of making this young Republic a happy and enduring one. He deplored that much political talk during this election year are aimed to distract national attention and concentration to the country’s effort to build our economy. He said it is necessary for him to make trips to provinces to indoctrinate the people on the constructive efforts of the government because of the systematic campaign to belittle or ignore what has been accomplished by the administration by negative-thinking politicians.”