Official Month in Review: September 1948

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PRESIDENT Elpidio Quirino on September 3 called an emergency meeting of the Cabinet to consider the matter of relief to typhoon and flood victims in Central Luzon and to extend all-out succor to the some 50,000 inhabitants of Camiguin Island, off the northern tip of Misamis Oriental, who had been rendered homeless following the violent eruption shortly after midnight of August 31 of Mt. Hibok-Hibok at Mambaja0. To cope with both situations, specially the more urgent one in Camiguin, the Cabinet worked out ways and means of stepping up relief work, which had already been started by various Government and private agencies, in all the affected areas. Accordingly, all Government relief agencies like the PACSA, PRATRA, NARIC, the Social Welfare Commission, the Department and the Bureau of Health, and the Philippine National Red Cross, with the cooperation of the Philippine Naval Patrol of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, redoubled their efforts in rushing aid to the victims in the form of rice, canned goods, clothing and medicine.

Throughout the critical period of the Camiguin disaster, from September 1 to September 20, Philippine Naval Patrol and American vessels, supplemented by other privately-owned craft, did a wonderful job of evacuating over 40,000 inhabitants from Camiguin Island. Volunteer relief groups throughout the country also contributed their respective mites toward alleviating the condition of the Camiguin folk. Meanwhile, President Quirino, indicating his deep concern over the welfare of the sufferers on Camiguin, toward the middle of September dispatched a mercy mission to the volcanic area jointly headed by Secretaries Antonio Villarama of Health and Pedro Magsalin of Labor to take in the overall situation there and to submit the necessary recommendations to him upon their return. They were also instructed to inspect all evacuation centers, including those in Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, and in various towns in Misamis Oriental proper. Others in the mercy mission were Vicente Orosa, Undersecretary of Public Works and Communications; Director of Health Felipe Arenas, PRATRA General Manager Ildefonso Coscolluela, Senator Lorenzo Tanada, and Gabriel Belmonte, Malacañan Technical Assistant.

The mission, as well as another relief group headed by Social Welfare Commissioner Asuncion A. Perez, found everything in order in all places they nad visited, effected ways and means of coordinating all relief work, and reported upon their return to Manila that the situation was well in hand and that Geophysicist Arturo Alcaraz of the Weather Bureau, who had flown to the volcanic area a day or two after the eruption, had already ordered the return of heads of families to their respective homes. Moreover, priority was given to Camiguin folk in all Public Works projects in Misamis Oriental proper and in all other evacuation centers, while Secretary Villarama recommended what he termed “work relief” in the forms of parcels of land owned by the Government, work animals, farm implements, etc., for all displaced persons, specially tenants who had no farms of their own.

The month of September also witnessed the long-awaited changes in the Cabinet line-up. As revamped the cabinet is now composed o€ the following: Sotero Baluyut, Secretary of the Interior (new); Sabino Radilla, Secretary of Justice (new); Placido L. Mapa, Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources (transferred from Commerce and Industry); Prudencio Langcauon, Secretary of Education (new); Primitive Lovina, Secretary of Labor (new); Cornelio Balmaceda, Secretary of Commerce and Industry (new); Teodoro Evangelista, Executive Secretary (new); and Social Welfare Commissioner Asuncion A. Perez, Cabinet member without portfolio (new); Miguel Cuaderno, Secretary of Finance; Ricardo Nepomuceno, Secretary of Public Works and Communications; Ruperto Kangleon, Secretary of National Defense; Antonio Villarama, Secretary of Health; Bernabe Africa, Acting Secretary of Foreign Affairs; and Pio Pedrosa, Commissioner of the Budget. Other important appointments were as follows: Felino Neri as Acting Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs; Esteban A. Abada, Undersecretary of Education; Teodosio Diño, Undersecretary of National Defense; former Secretary of Justice Roman Ozaeta, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court; former Secretary of Education Manuel V. Gallego, Ambassador-at-large; former Executive Secretary Emilio Abello, Minister Plenipotentiary to Washington; former Secretary of the Interior Jose C. Zulueta, Acting Chairman, Surplus Property Commission; former Secretary of Labor Pedro Magsalin, Malacañan Technical Adviser and Philippine delegate to the International Labor Organization, United Nations; former Secretary Jorge B. Vargas and Gil J. Puyat, Chairman and Member, respectively, of the National Urban Planning Commission; Cecilio Putong, Director of Public Schools; Domocho Alonto, Malacañan Technical Assistant; and Major Andres O. Cruz and Major Bartolome C. Cabangbang, Acting Administrator and Deputy Administrator, respectively, of the Civil Aeronautics Administration. Another important appointment to the Judiciary, in addition to those of Secretary of Justice Sabino Padilla and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Roman Ozaeta, was that of Judge Conrado Barrios of the Manila Court of First Instance who was named Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals on September 4. Three other Manila judges who had previously been appointed to the Court of Appeals were Fortunato V. Borromeo, Dionisio de Leon and Sotero Rodas.

DURING the month under review, President Quirino took occasion to send at least two congratulatory messages abroad, the first on September 6 to Queen Juliana, of the Netherlands, to whom he conveyed “the most cordial greetings of the Government and people of the Philippines” on the occasion of her ascension to the throne, and the second on September 22 to Herbert C. Evatt, Foreign Minister of Australia, whom he congratulated for having been elected President of the United Nations General Assembly for its session which had just opened in Paris. On September 9 President Quirino also dispatched messages of congratulation to two important Filipino citizens on the occasion of their birthday—former President Sergio Osmeña, now residing in Cebu; and Congressman Quintin Paredes, who was then on his way to Paris as Philippine delegate to the conference of the United Nations General Assembly.

SEPTEMBER 7, 1948, was a red-letter day in the Quirino household as it witnessed the birth of a bouncing eight-pound baby boy to Mrs. Tomas Quirino (nee Conchita Rastrollo) at the Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Sta. Mesa. Following receipt of the good news, the President, accompanied by Palace aides, motored to the hospital. The happy grandfather was allowed to take a peep at Elpidio Tomas, the new addition to the Quirino clan, through the glass door of the nursery.

THE people of Rizal Province on September 8 saw a unique exhibition of agricultural products when the first Extension Service Van of the Bureau of Plant Industry, in cooperation with the President’s Action Committee on Social Amelioration (PACSA), began its tour of the province to distribute seeds and give demonstrations on all phases of farming and gardening. On the rolling van were personnel of the Bureau of Plant Industry who gave advice to the people on agricultural problems and distributed informative literature on many aspects of crop raising; and physicians and nurses of the Bureau of Health who gave medical assistance to the sick in the towns and barrios along the way. At this writing, more extension service units, including traveling health clinics, are being readied to service remote towns and barrios in the provinces.

Meanwhile, following the extraordinary session of the Cabinet on September 10, during which the President urged the heads of Departments of the Executive Branch to mobilize their resources and personnel for a full-blast execution of the six-point social amelioration program approved by the Council of State with, if need be, the protection of the Philippine Constabulary and the Philippine Army, the PACSA continued without let-up to accomplish its mission of relieving distress in the eight provinces of Central and Southern Luzon. This in spite of the diversion to Camiguin Island of much of the Government’s effort at relief and amelioration. In a subsequent report of the PACSA which President Quirino took up at the regular Cabinet meeting on September 14, indications of accomplishment were abundant. Incidentally, the President referred to the respective Department Secretaries, who had previously indicated eagerness to extend all possible cooperation to the PACSA, some of the difficulties and complaints of the Action Committee for immediate solution.

Toward the end of September, various reports reaching Malacañan indicated that growing cooperation on the part of the people had resulted in effective work and coordination between the PACSA and the Armed Forces operating in Central Luzon in the matter of taking care of displaced persons and evacuees. Many civilians, including deactivated guerrillas, civilian guards and other volunteers, were reported offering their services in fighting the dissidents. Thus, civilians who previously had been hostile or had been abetting the dissidents, were said to be cooperating in every way, including the giving of information and cooperation, to the PC and PACSA. It was emphasized anew that the basic objective of the armed operation was to clear the fields of obstructions like the dissidents in order that the Administration’s social amelioration program being implemented by the PACSA could be carried out with greater speed and success.

THE Surplus Property Commission came in for its share of Presidential attention during the month. Following the suspension of Arsenio N. Luz as a result of the complaint filed against him and others for negligence, President Quirino on September 15 appointed Secretary of the Interior Jose C. Zulueta as Acting Chairman of the Commission. Earlier, on September 2, President Quirino instructed Mr. Luz, then Chairman of the Surplus Property Commission, to place under suspension all the officials and employees of the Commission who had been recommended for prosecution by the Horrilleno investigating committee. The President also asked Mr. Luz to “liquidate” the many cases of “nepotism” in the Commission. Subsequently, on September 14, President Quirino ordered the suspension from office of all officials in the Surplus Property Commission, including Mr. Luz, who had just been accused in court in new complaints filed by the City Fiscal of Manila. Incidentally, in connection with nepotism cases unearthed by the Horrilleno committee in the SPC, the President, at the Cabinet meeting on September 3, admonished his Department Secretaries to purge their Departments of nepotism cases, if there were any, in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Quezon Executive Order on the subject.

THE abolition of all positions of agents without salary in all Government Departments and Offices was approved by President Quirino and his Cabinet on September 7. The President told the Cabinet that Malacañan had already implemented the policy by dropping every agent without pay. He urged the Department Secretaries to follow suit with respect to their Departments and the Offices under them.

THE Cabinet on September 7 reconsidered its previous ruling that the Commissioner of Customs should use sparingly his discretionary power to allow oceangoing steamers to call at subports to load cargo. This resulted in the reaffirmation of the new policy and a directive from President Quirino for its strict enforcement. Owing, however, to a misinterpretation of the Cabinet order in the circular subsequently issued by the Commissioner of Customs to implement the Cabinet decision, Executive Secretary Emilio Abello reported to the Cabinet on September 14 that his office had been receiving an avalanche of protests against the Customs circular. The circular stated, in effect, that calls at subports of ocean-going ships was completely prohibited by a ruling of the Cabinet President Quirino forthwith called the attention of the Secretary of Finance to the fact that the Cabinet decision had been misinterpreted. The Cabinet decision in question explicitly stated that the Commissioner of Customs should exercise his discretion in the matter sparingly, and should respect his previous commitments with shipping companies regarding loadings in subports.

IN accordance with the report and recommendations submitted to President Quirino by General Ralph B. Lovett, head of the U. S. Veterans Administration in the Philippines, for presentation to the U. S. Congress next January, the Chief Executive on September 8 instructed the President’s Advisory Board on the implementation of Public Law 865 of the 80th U. S. Congress, otherwise known as the Rogers Act, to work out the draft of a proposed plan for the implementation of the Act. Accordingly, Secretary of National Defense Ruperto Kangleon, Chairman of the Advisory Board, called that body to a meeting to draft the proposed plan. The Rogers Act authorizes $22,500,000 for hospitals and equipment and an operating budget of $3,285,000 per year for five years.

THE Philippine Government stands to gain ₱1,861,540 plus sixty per cent of gold, silver coins, currencies specie, and other valuable cargo in a contract entered into during the first week of September by the Control Committee of the Government Enterprises Council and the Charles Choy (Philippines) Inc., jointly with Mollers’ (Hongkong) Ltd., for the clearing or salvaging of scrap metals, vessels and other craft in Philippine waters. By the terms of the agreement, the contractors will erect in the Philippines at an investment of ₱1,000,000 a rerolling steel mill to reprocess 32,000 tons of scrap, of which 11,000 will be finished as reinforcing steel rods and bars to be sold to the Philippine Government at a fixed price of P232.43 per ton.

THE prediction that “the Philippine Republic will become the world’s first and best volume source of ramie fiber and by-products” was made on September 9 by Willis G. Waldo, in an address before the Manila Rotary Club at the Manila Hotel. Waldo, Vice-President of the Fiber Conversion Corporation of New York, had been contracted by the National Development Company to study and report on local ramie possibilities. Mr. Waldo’s report, covering his researches on ramie culture in the Philippines and the possible areas of growing and processing the plant in this country, was submitted to President Quirino on September 14.

DETERMINED that all of the ₱240,000,000 authorized by the United States Congress for the restoration and improvement of public buildings, roads and bridges, and other public properties in the Philippines destroyed or damaged by the war should be availed of, President Quirino on September 9 summoned the War Damage Commissioners, the United States Public Roads Administrators, officials of the Department and the Bureau of Public Works, and local contractors to a conference and urged them to put their shoulders together and push the program of public works reconstruction to such a speed that not a single peso of that amount would be forfeited. The Rehabilitation Law authorizing the money provides that the total sum of ₱240,000,000 shall be allocated by the President of the United States “from time to time but not later than the fiscal year 1950.” Realizing later that this would mean allocation of all the funds about a year before the target date or June 30, 1949, barely less than a year away, the Council of State on September 15 deemed it wise for the Philippine Republic to make representations with the Government of the United States for the extension of the deadline. Three days later, or on September 13, the Council of State, upon the suggestion of President Quirino, agreed to break down the ₱25,000,000 earmarked for the National Capitol and spend all but ₱2,000,000 of it for other purposes, including the construction or repair of barrio schools and roads. Apprised of the Council’s decision, the War Damage Commission, through Chairman Fred Waring, agreed that the proposal was wise and practical.

PRESIDENT Quirino in the morning of September 11 set the ball rolling for the nation-wide observance of Arbor Day by planting two red shower trees in the Palace grounds, in the presence of a delegation from the National Federation of Women’s Clubs.

REPRESENTATIVES of the working party of the ECAFE—V. R. Raghavan and R. Subbiah of India, Dr. Hu of China, and two Filipino experts attached to the party, Ramon Abarquez and Felix V. Espino—on September 12 conferred with top Philippine Government authorities on finance, transportation, agriculture, natural resources and economics, with a view to formulating answers to a questionnaire on the industrial and economic needs of the Philippines. The data sought, which were completed by the Philippine group at its subsequent meeting on September 19, will form part of a working basis for the solution of the particular needs and problems of the Far East member nations at the forthcoming meeting of the ECAFE in Australia on November 22, 1948.

THE National Economic Council, at the instance of President Quirino, met on September 17 to study and consider three reports; namely, the report of the special committee of auditors appointed to investigate the transactions of the National Coconut Corporation, NACOCO General Manager Maximo M. Kalaw’s own report, and Willis G. Waldo’s report on the commercial possibilities of ramie culture in the Philippines. The Council approved among others a proposal broached by Dr. Manuel L. Roxas, Malacañan Science and Economic Adviser, regarding the integration and coordination of the industrialization plans of the Government. The conferees were Jose Yulo, Secretaries Mariano Garchitorena, Ricardo Nepomuceno and Placido L. Mapa, Vicente Carmona, Vicente Sabalvaro, Jose Cojuangeo, Gil J. Puyat and Amando M. Dalisay, executive secretary.

THE Korean Goodwill Mission, headed by Dr. Py-Hun-Ok Chough, oil September 8 called on President Quirino to pay their respects and to express their gratitude, on behalf of Dr. Syngman Rhee, president of the Republic of Korea, for the act of the Philippine Republic in extending recognition to the new Korean state. Other members of the mission were Drs. W. P. Kim, Y. H. Cheung and J. K. Kim. In the evening of the same day, President Quirino honored the Goodwill Mission with a state dinner at Malacañan Palace.

MEETING his revamped Cabinet in its first business meeting on September 24, President Quirino laid down a three-point instruction for its guidance, namely: (1) Full responsibility must be borne by each Department Secretary for the duties and functions of his Office under the law; (2) the different Secretaries should study and formulate such legislative projects as they may want the Congress to take up in its next session; and (3) the Cabinet members should be prepared to discuss comprehensively with the Convention of Provincial Governors in Manila on October 4, 1948, such matters as may concern their Departments.

SET on ending once and for all the perennial rice shortage which afflicts the country, President Quirino on September 29 created a Rice Commission of 11 members and charged it with the duty of making a thorough study of the problems involved and to make recommendations calculated to result in production making up the estimated annual rice shortage of about 15,000,000 cavanes. The members of the Commission as constituted are Vicente Carmona, President of the Philippine National Bank; Jose Cojuangco, President, Rice Growers Association; Judge Guillermo Guevara in representation of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce; Placido L. Mapa, Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources; Primitivo Lovina, Secretary of Labor; Ildefonso Coscolluela, General Manager of the PRATRA; Judge Servillano de la Cruz, President-Chairman of the NARIC; Ricardo Nepomuceno, Secretary of Public Works and Communications; Vicemte Sabalvaro, Manager of the National Development Company; Delfin Buencamino, Chairman of the Rehabilitation Finance Corporation; and Cornelio Balmaceda, Secretary of Commerce and Industry.

UNDER the signature of Executive Secretary Teodoro Evangelista, acting by authority of President Quirino, Malacañan on September 30 issued an instruction to Mayor Manuel de la Fuente of Manila to the effect that amusement places and gaming centers including night clubs and cabarets established after January 1, 1941, if within prohibited zones, must be closed by midnight of September 30, 1948, but that similar establishments duly opened on or before January 1, 1941, in such zones, would be given one year from October 1, 1948, within which to close or to transfer to non-prohibited zones.

Source: University of the Philippines, College of Law Library

Office of the President of the Philippines. (1948). The Official Month in Review. Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, 44(9), 3147-3151.

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