Copyright Quisumbing Family 2007. All rights reserved.
failed to finish their degrees and returned to the Philippines poorly unprepared for duties which they were assigned.
Due to difficulties in securing trained personnel to positions requiring technical or scientific knowledge, it became imperative to send Filipinos to American universities for special training. In view of this need for men possessing such knowledge and the development of public instruction, the Governor General (Francis B. Harrison) in his message to the Philippine Legislature on October 16, 1918 recommended for the revival of the pensionado movement. Thus, the Legislature passed Act No. 2785 of December 21, 1918 appropriating the amount of PhP300,000 for scholarships in the United States or any foreign country available to private persons or government officials or employees by reason of their technical knowledge or special training or because of the studies initiated by them need to be supplemented or perfected for the benefit of any branch of public interest or for the interest of the Philippine Government.
A committee on government pensionados was created by the Council of State to promulgate rules and regulations on the choice of pensionados as provided for. In its meeting of June 11, 1919, the Council approved a large number of appointees from the
different offices and branches of government.24
Under the authority of the Council dated April 10, l919, Dr. Walter W.
Marquardt, Director of Education (June 20, 19l6-July 1, 1919) was named the
Philippine Educational Agent by Acting Governor General Charles E. Yeater for
three years. His duties were as follows: (1) to take charge of the
pensionados, (2) to secure teachers for the Bureau of Education and the
University of the
Philippines, and
(3) to perform other duties as might be assigned by the Council of State. He
continued to serve in that capacity when his original contract was renewed until
March 31, 1923 on his
retirement under the Philippine Retirement Act. His assistant since February 16, 1920, Mrs. Georgia S.
Williams, succeeded him in an acting capacity until she was permanently
appointed to that position on September
20, 1924.
There
were two kinds of scholarship: (1) full and (2) partial. The full scholarship
provided the pensionado a monthly allowance of seventy dollars to cover
his expenses for lodging, laundry and board aside from necessary travelling
expenses actually incurred, expenses for matriculation, books and other items
deemed necessary by the educational agent. The partial entitled the
pensionado a fixed monthly allowance of forty dollars at the start and it
was increased to include tuition, expenses for typing and printing dissertations
for advanced degrees, actual and necessary travel expenses in the United States
and a first class return trip from the United States to Manila. Government
pensionados received the difference between the annual pensionado
quota of two thousand pesos and the salaries they had previously
received.25
The
Philippine Legislature in Act 3227 of November 6, 1925 revised the selection of
pensionados in 1926 by competitive examinations supervised and controlled
by the Director of Civil Service in the Philippines or the Bureau of Insular
Affairs in the United States under rules and regulations to be promulgated by
the Pensionado Committee of the Council of State. These rules and
regulations promulgated on March 2, 1926 made radical changes which (1)
restricted pensionados to pursue courses not offered in the Philippines;
(2) limited the scholarship to one year subject to extension depending on the
recommendations of the university authorities and the pensionado agent;
and (3) limited appointments to persons who had graduated from a four-year
degree program or to government officials or employees to undertake special
studies or investigations. Pensionados who enjoyed the full and partial
scholarships still received the same allowances and privileges as stated above.
This was also applicable to government officials or employees who got the same
difference as shown above. The full and partial scholars were to serve the
government one year and a half and one year, respectively, for every year the
government spent for their schooling and to submit themselves under the control
and supervision of the pensionado agent.
The holding of competitive examinations in the
United States
was conducted by the American Civil Service Commission with the cooperation of
the pensionado agent in 1927 and 1928, the only two occasions, to secure
eligibles for appointment as partial pensionados. There were fourteen and
eleven partial pensionados in the two years mentioned above. The partial
scholarships offered were in accounting, agriculture, chemistry, education,
surveying and engineering.26
The work of Dr.
Marquardt and Mrs.Williams as pensionado agents differed little from
those agents of the first period (1903-1914). What is significant was that the
pensionados of the second period (1919-1934) were much older, more
educated and more “Americanized” than those of the first group. The agent of the
first and second periods had almost similar tasks except that the agent of the
second group had to take long trips to check the progress and conduct of each
student in different universities and colleges throughout the country.
Regarding the college work of the pensionados, Marquardt advised
the college officials not to grant special favors to graduating foreign students
who should be at par in both academic and scientific standards as those set for
the Americans. As to language requirements, some considerations might be allowed
to other foreign students but not to Filipino students who received instruction
in English.
Pensionados of the second period were permitted to acquire
practical experience as much as possible. In 1928, for example, several of them
worked in banks, construction companies, hospitals, schools, and government
offices to gain such experience.
Aside
from his work with the students, the pensionado
agent was entrusted to secure the hiring of American teachers for the
Philippine service. The routinary work of sending information and application
blanks to prospective teachers was handled by a staff of the Bureau of Insular
Affairs. Letters of inquiry on special points were replied by the Philippine
educational agent himself. Formal appointments were approved by the Bureau who
also handled the transportation arrangement for the appointed
teachers.
The Bureau took care of the warrant and transportation orders of the pensionados as well as the functions of a fiscal nature. As a service to the Filipino pensionados and non-government Filipino students, the Bureau was responsible for the periodical publication of a Directory of Filipino Students in the United States and What Filipino Students Coming to the United States Ought to Know in 1921 and re-issued in several editions.27
With regard to university fellows, the University of the Philippines was entitled to a number of pensionados for foreign study. A few of these pensionados received financial support from the annual appropriation of this University. These university fellows received the same allowances and privileges like the pensionados appointed by the Council of State but their actual appointments were approved by the University Board of Regents.
