Pensionado Act
It hoped to prepare the Philippines for self-governance and present a positive image of Filipinos to the rest of the United States.
During World War II, Japan initiated a similar program during its occupation of the Philippines, named nampo tokubetsu ryugakusei.
Following the War, and Philippine independence, Filipino students continued to come to the United States utilizing government scholarships.
During the Spanish era of the Philippines, officially from the years 1565 to 1898, education other than that provided by religious institutions, was not generally available to the average Filipino until after 1863.
[4] However, Filipinos who supported the independence of the First Republic of the Philippines clashed with American authority, and fought an unsuccessful conflict with the United States.
[3][5] At the behest of American soldiers, well-to-do families began to send their children to the United States for education; one example was Ramon Jose Lacson, who went on to earn his Ph.D. at Georgetown University at the age of 20.
[12][15] Then-Governor General William Howard Taft asked for more to be done to foster goodwill between Filipinos and Americans.
[18][19] Initially envisioned by Professor Bernard Moses in July 1900, the program was to pacify Filipino opposition following the Philippine–American War, as well as prepare the islands for self-governance, by showing the difference between Spain and the United States through exposure to American values.
[24][30][31] Prior to taking college courses, the initial pensionados attended high school in the continental United States for the purpose of language and culture acclimation.
[25] In 1904, pensionados served as guides and waiters at the Philippines exhibit at the St. Louis Exposition;[28] there they were a contrast to the Igorots, who also represented Filipinos to the attendees of the world's fair.
[51] Before returning to the Philippines, pensionados began student-run newspapers, which were part of the beginning of media geared specifically to the Filipino diaspora in the United States.
[54] Near the end of World War II, the Commonwealth Government in Exile was offered to have some of the pensionados trained in foreign relations, anticipating the 1946 independence of the Philippines from the United States.
[43] Other pensionados took influential roles in government,[72] including Secretary of Finance Antonio de las Alas,[72] Senator Camilo Osias,[72][73] Major General Carlos P. Romulo,[43] and Chief Justice José Abad Santos.
[80] Known as "fountain pen boys", by 1920 nearly five thousand Filipino students had attended American schools, receiving post-secondary education.
[22][83] Some of these students would go on to fund their education as domestic workers, with some attending Chapman College and the University of Southern California, with a few earning graduate degrees.
[88] Educated Filipinos who settled in the United States faced racial discrimination when looking for jobs in their trained industries.
[91] Subsequent payments made by China to the United States relating to the Boxer Rebellion were deferred, as long as they were spent for the scholarship.
[95] The program was administrated out of the former American School in Japan by a part of the Ministry of Greater East Asia.
[23] A similar but smaller program funding the education of Filipinos in the United States was done under the Smith–Mundt Act, which was specific for civic leaders.
