Cebu Junior College Fund (U.P. Cebu) of 1936
Newly installed as president of the Philippines, Manuel L. Quezon delivered a message to the First National Assembly on December 16, 1935. President Quezon submitted for the early consideration of a bill appropriating the sum of P30,000 for the operation and maintenance of the Junior College of Liberal Arts of the University of the Philippines in the Province of Cebu during the fiscal year 1936.
Under Act 4244 approved on October 10, 1935, declared the Junior College of Liberal Arts in the Province of Cebu to be a permanent branch of the University of the Philippines but allotted only the amount of P10,000 for the maintenance of the branch for the remainder of the fiscal year 1935. The Act also provides that in the succeeding years the operating expenses thereof in the amount of P30,000 shall be included in the annual appropriations act for the University of the Philippines in the General Appropriations Act. President Quezon added that there is a need of either a special law or supplementary appropriation law setting aside P30,000 for the Junior College of Cebu for 1936.
The Junior College of Cebu was created a decade after the University of the Philippines was established. In the Seventh (7th) Annual Report of the president of the University of the Philippines General HK.Marks, he wrote: "That the academic year began on July 1, 1917 and ended on June 10, 1918. During this period the Board of Regents held 16 meetings, nine of which were presided over by Chairman Yeater, four by Acting Chairman Roxas, one by Acting Chairman Albert and two by Regent Quezon."
Act 2759, amended the Organic Act of the University, approved by the Philippine Legislature at its session of February 23, 1918. According to the provisions of the Act, the Board shall now be composed of the Secretary of Public Instruction, who shall be ex officio chairman, the Secretary of the Interior, the chairman of the Committee of Public Instruction of the Senate, the chairman of the Committee on Public Instruction of the House of Representatives, the Director of Education, the president of the University, one member of the University Council of the University of the Philippines elected by the Council, an Alumnus of the University of the Philippines elected by the Alumni of the University under such rules and regulations as may be promulgated by the Board of Regents, and three (3) additional members to be appointed by the Governor General, by and with the consent of the Senate.
The National Assembly was created in 1907 by virtue of the Philippine Bill of 1902, which was unicameral and its members were called Representatives or Congressmen, it was the Cebuano representative, Sergio Suico Osmeña who was elected the First Speaker of the National Assembly (Quezon was only Osmena's majority floor leader). The Senate was created in 1916 by virtue of the Jones Law or Autonomy Act of 1916. It was however abolished in 1935 by the passage of the 1935 Constitution, years later it was restored and an election held in 1941. This time, the Senators were elected at large as compared in 1916 were the Senators were elected by the so called "Senatorial Districts". The country was divided into 12 senatorial districts.
That is the reason why Senators Roxas and Quezon at one time presided over the meetings of the Board of Regents as they represented the Senate and House of Representatives respective Committee on Public Instruction (today's equivalent to the Department of Education).
Hon. E. Finley Johnson ceased to be a member of the Board upon the enactment of Act 2759, and Prof. Herman W. Reynolds was elected by the University as a member of the Board of Regents on April 1, 1918, and Assistant Professor Bienvenido M. Gonzalez by the alumni of the University.
Another important amendment of the Organic Act of the University of the Philippines is the power given to the Board to establish, without the need of legislative action, such schools and colleges in the Philippines as the Board may deem necessary. Under the amendment the Board of Regents established the Junior College of Liberal Arts at Cebu on July 1, 1918.
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