The calamities of 1951 and the President's action
President Elpidio Quirino was challenged by great natural calamities during his administration. He addressed them calmly and fast. On the month of December 1951, Hibok-Hibok (volcano in Camiguin) erupted, Typhoon Amy and Wanda wrought havoc in the Visayas and Mindanao, affecting Cebu. It caused the death of more than a thousand lives. In Camiguin, 286 bodies were recovered, 800 missing and presumed dead with 26,000 homeless in Mambajao and Catarman. Eight thousand evacuees were safely moved to the mainland, Bohol, and Cebu.
A total of 49,342 in ten provinces in the Visayas and Southern Luzon were totally or partially destroyed by Typhoon Wanda on November 21. There were 213,242 persons displaced and rendered homeless, 82 reported dead. On December 15, there were 65,000 victims who received emergency food rations from the national government.
Typhoon Amy which struck on December 9 and 10 has caused the death of 626 persons, with thousands upon thousands rendered without shelter. Days after President Quirino authorized the relief of the victims of Typhoon Amy through the Red Cross the amount of P65,200. The Social Welfare Administration also disbursed the amount of P55,000 for the relief of typhoon victims in clothes, rice and housing materials.
President Qurino, upon receipt of a telegram on December 4 informing of the Hibok-Hibok disaster, immediately instructed Secretary Marciano Roque (Executive Secretary) to direct the PNRC, the Social Welfare Administration, the Department of Health, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and all other relief organizations to give the needed relief to the stricken area. The President also instructed Secretary Roque to get confirmation of the casualties reported and follow through the progress of relief work.
On December 13, immediately following receipt of a telegram from the mayor of Cebu City soliciting assistance from the national government, the President ordered the immediate release of about P10,000 worth of much needed building materials for the construction of temporary makeshift homes to house thousands rendered homeless in Cebu City by Typhoon Amy.
The Council of State, on December 13, adopted measures to rush relief supplies for the sufferers of the eruption of Mt. Hibok-Hibok and Typhoons Wanda and Amy which laid waste the entire provinces of the Visayas. The council took steps to make available approximately P1,000,000 which was needed according to estimates made by the Social Welfare Administration and the Red Cross to meet the needs of the disaster victims.
President Quirino on December 15, during his 38thmonthly radio chat appealed to the public, here and abroad, for voluntary contributions and donations to raise the balance of the estimated amount needed for relief of the victims of the disasters. He said "Your contributions will be the best possible investment you can have in a season of peace and goodwill. You will strengthen by that much the bond of human sympathy which joins you and your neighbors and community without which we cannot exist and endure as a free and united people".
President Quirino then on December 17, visited the victims on Camiguin Island and the sufferers in the Visayas and Mindanao. The President then ordered the immediate release of P150,000 from the sweepstakes funds for aid to the sufferers of the eruption of Hibok-Hibok and the Typhoon Amy and Wanda.
President Quirino issued Proclamation No. 296 on December 12, 1951 proclaiming the existence of public calamity in Camiguin Island, Misamis Oriental, in the Provinces of Samar, Leyte, Cebu, Iloilo, Antique, Capiz, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Bohol, Romblon, and Masbate and in the Cities of Calbayog, Cebu, Dumaguete, Bacolod, Iloilo, and Roxas.
The receipt and distribution of donations and relief were ably handled by Mrs. Asuncion A. Perez, the Public Welfare Commissioner and Secretary of Health, Juan A. Salcedo, who was also chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross.
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