1948 Pinay scholar honored at Fulbright 70th Anniversary

Ninety-four-year-old alumna Conchita Abad could still remember the night in 1948 when she danced with US General Douglas MacArthur at the Manila Hotel, just a few months before she was accepted as a Fulbright scholar.

Abad recalled that she was dancing with her father when MacArthur approached her father and asked him if he could dance with Conchita.

“General Douglas Mc Arthur was here in the Philippines. So I danced with him two waltzes at the Manila Hotel. We danced.” Said Abad who described MacArthur as tall and masculine gentleman.

Abad remembered how General MacArthur encouraged her to visit the US. “He was very nice he asked me a lot of questions and then he said, 'I hope you see the United States of America.'

"'Hopefully,' I said. Never did I think... that I was going to the States.” said Abad, who, on a Friday evening in 2018, was being honored as a Fulbright Hall of Fame awardee.

It was the 70th Anniversary of Fulbright Philippines and gala dinner was organized to honor Abad and the other Hall of Fame awardees.

Abad was among those being recognized as she had developed the first B.S. Occupational Therapy curriculum in the Philippines, and was one of the pioneers who fought for the bill that would regulate the practice of physical and occupational therapy.

She was in good company given that among the other Fulbright honorees that evening were former Senator Rene Saguisag, and national artists Napoleon Abueva and Bienvenido Lumbera.

Depth of ties

The Fulbright program in the Philippines was established on March 23, 1948 through an executive agreement between the United States and the Philippines.

It was created through the efforts of former US Senator William Fulbright in the aftermath of World War II to promote peace and enhance the relationship between the United States and the Philippines.

Since then the Fulbright program had provided more than three thousand scholarship awards to Filipinos. Likewise, the Philippines had provided more than one thousand scholarships to Americans as part of the educational exchange program.

US Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim expected the Fulbright program to "move forward" as they expanded the reach of their application process, bringing it closer to other locations around the Philippines and making the Fulbright program available for all genders, religion, gender, and age.

“We do want to be more inclusive. We don’t want this program to be just scholars for Manila. We want people from Mindanao, scholars from different parts of the country. So we’re reaching out much more broadly,” explained Kim.

The US Ambassador added that the Fulbright program under the Philippine-American Educational Foundation reflected the "depth of ties" between the United States and the Philippines, and that regardless of any political differences between the two countries, empowering the Filipino people through education would always remain a priority.

“We don’t always agree on everything. Sometimes we have disagreements over certain issues. But we do want to make sure that initiatives like educational exchanges and the programs like Fulbright scholarships continue regardless of what’s happening politically,” said Kim.

Former Philippine Ambassador to the US, and himself a Fulbright hall of fame awardee, Jose L. Cuisia Jr. said that educational exchange programs such as Fulbright were a "very good program to develop bilateral ties between Filipinos and Americans."

Cuisia added that such programs were also "a good way for the Americans to get to know also how the Filipinos live, the culture of the Filipinos, and they develop very strong ties.”

Former Senator Edgardo Angara, who was also present at the Fulbright's 70th Anniversary, said the government needed to support programs that invested in Filipino education as these would ultimately benefit the country.

“We must all believe in the human capital ng isang bansa. That's why I'm supporting any scholarship program,” explained Angara. — DVM, GMA News