More Back-to-Basics Data about Manila’s U.S. “MedCenter” in the 1900s

Philippine General Hospital – A cultural heritage property | Photo by Patrickroque01 via Wikimedia Creative Commons

Part XLII of the “EDEN America” Series

Many Filipino and American historians forget to mention the vision of then-President McKinley and his chosen first civil governor-general for the Philippine Islands (P.I.), William Howard Taft. The visionary aim was to win the hearts and minds of the people of America’s first (and biggest) colony. The bottom line was first to modernize the limited educational-and-medical infrastructures built in the P.I. by the former colonial ruler of Spain. And do it with back-to-basics moves.

Two visionary projects were developing a modern public school system staffed with American teachers and a “medical center.” The “MedCenter” had three components: 1.) Schools of medicine, nursing, and other medical courses. 2.) A hospital system by erecting — in the same block with the medical schools — the Philippine General Hospital; and in the rural areas, provincial hospitals. And 3.) A medical-science research-and-development (R&D) center — as also built in the same location in the City of Manila.

This columnist wrote — starting in May 2007 — a history of Filipino literature in English. He included these notes: The U.S. officially ended the military rule of the Philippines on July 4, 1901, and inaugurated the first civil government in the archipelago. Taft was the first civil governor. (He eventually became the 27th President of the U.S. in 1909.) The marriages to Filipino brides of more than 1,200 Buffalo soldiers, out of the more than 6,000 Black-American troops sent to the Philippines from 1899-1901, also contributed to learning English as a primary language of the archipelago. Thus began the Americanization of the Philippine Islands, the Filipino people, and their literature.

“Two visionary projects were developing a modern public school system staffed with American teachers and a “medical center.”

In trying to win the hearts and minds of the Filipinos, the U.S. brought American teachers to the Philippines, starting in 1901. Later, they called these teachers Thomasites, as the first batch of instructors arrived on board the transport ship, USS Thomas, on Aug. 23, 1901.

David Barrows, the director of education in the Philippines from 1902 to 1908, stressed academic curriculum. He also inaugurated a program for talented young Filipinos to study in the U.S. The Filipino students were called pensionados, the first 100 sailing for the U.S. in October 1903. More and more Filipino high-school valedictorians and salutatorians were sent for college education every year after that. For those who managed to excel, an additional opportunity to earn masters and even doctorate degrees.

You can read more information in the article “From Bulusan to Bulosan: Reviving the ‘Pensionado’ Tradition.”

Also, readers may like to browse the 3-part series on the “More-than a Century of Filipino Writing in English.”

Here are more data about the McKinley-Taft vision of a “Medical Center”: They built Philippine Medical School in 1905 at the former Malecon Drive (now Bonifacio Drive). In 1910, it was integrated as one of the colleges into the University of the Philippines and renamed to U.P. College of Medicine and Surgery. Later, they shortened the name to the University of the Philippines College of Medicine. Its first Dean was Dr. Paul Freer, while Dr. Fernando Calderon, an alumnus of the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, became the first Filipino Dean of the College. The Calderon Hall is currently the main building of UP College of Medicine students.

Then-Secretary of Interior of the Philippine Commission Dean C. Worcester conceived an original (?) vision of building a hospital, a medical school, and a laboratory as one integral complex in the new American colony that paved the way to the development of the current medical college and the Philippine General Hospital. (Columnist’s Note: It is evident that Commissioner Worcester was just following McKinley-Taft’s vision of a “Medical Center” as, by 1909, Taft, the U.S. president, was Taft.)

Readers may like to read more data about the U.P. College of Medicine.

But despite the best-laid plans, sometimes things go awry. The McKinley-Taft vision included medical R&D experiments. One of them turned tragic. This columnist wrote about it in 2011; this AP article on “Horrific U.S. Medical Experiments” Fails to Include U.S. Army’s Botched Medical Experiments in Manila in 1900 and 1906.

And speaking of nurses, the McKinley-Taft vision led to the development of medical professions that turned out really-good nurses and physicians that could easily pass their respective Board examinations in the United States. By August 1988, then-Foreign Affairs Secretary Raul Manglapus stated in his speech before the World Affairs Council (WAC) of Los Angeles that more than 500,000 nurses and 22,000 physicians from the Philippines were already Board certified and working in U.S. hospitals and medical centers.

Mr. Manglapus (then the Filipino equivalent of the U.S. Secretary of State) also said that tens of thousands more Filipino medical professionals — from dentists, pharmacists, medical technicians, dietitians, nursing assistants, and caregivers — were helping Americans live better and longer. I was the only Filipino journalist covering the Manglapus’ speaking engagement at the WAC.

“If President Biden et al. chose to copy a bolder initiative of the McKinley-Taft vision, they could change the world. Not overnight, but in some 25 years (as Mr. Biden stated for his proposal, “Cancer Moonshot.”)

In November 2000, this columnist wrote an article about Filipino nurses in Arkansas and in Europe, which I updated in 2007.

Time magazine recently published an article, “From AIDS to COVID-19, America’s Medical System Has a Long History of Relying on Filipino Nurses to Fight on the Frontlines.”

President Biden and the other American policy and decision-makers can take a bold step in emulating the vision for the Filipino people of Presidents McKinley and then-Civil Governor-General Taft in the 1900s. Now, after a lapse of more than 120 years, many countries in the Third World still lack viable and affordable education, medical care, and socioeconomic development.

If President Biden et al. chose to copy a bolder initiative of the McKinley-Taft vision, they could change the world. Not overnight, but in some 25 years (as Mr. Biden stated for his proposal, “Cancer Moonshot.”) And also vanquish the current and future pandemics.

It will also enable the U.S. to reclaim its traditional role as the humane trading partner of most countries involved in mankind’s current efforts to acquire back-to-basics solutions for socioeconomic and medical problems. It is a Win-Win situation for humanity and the American people.

Finally, the cost may not even be half of the nearly three trillion of greenbacks that American taxpayers spent in the No-Win war in Afghanistan for more than two decades.