Pensionados

“Established in 1903, the pensionado program provided government scholarships to students supposedly chosen by merit from each Philippine province; in actuality, local prominence and connections played a major role in the selection process. In return for each year of education in the United States, pensionados were required to work for the government in the Philippines for the same length of time.”

Quoted from Barbara Posadas, The Filipino Americans (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1999), p. 16.