Note 39 — THE COLLEGE OF SAN JOSÉ

Between the years 1860 and 1870, the question of the conversion of the college into a professional school of some sort—arts, agriculture, or medicine—was much discussed, particularly its conversion into a school of medicine and pharmacy. Finally, in 1867, a board consisting of the rectors of the university, Ateneo Municipal, and college of San José, and one representative each of the professions of medicine and pharmacy, was convened by royal order, and charged with the duty of ascertaining the origin and object of the college of San José, its revenues and pious charges, and the best manner of installing therein classes of medicine and pharmacy. The report of the committee was to the effect that such studies could be admitted. The rector and administrator of the college in 1869 was of the same opinion, and the rector of the university of Santo Tomás also considered such a thing legal. November 6, 1870, the Spanish government adopted the decrees concerning education in the Philippines, known as the Moret decrees,39 by which the attempt was made to secularize most of the institutions of learning. Among other provisions in these decrees was one directing that the college of San José, the college of San Juan de Letran, and the Ateneo Municipal, as well as the naval academy and the drawing and painting academy should be united in one academy for secondary and entirely secular education to be known as the Philippine Institute, to be subject to the ultimate control of a Superior Board of Education which was civil and secular in its character. These decrees were never enforced, for they were vigorously opposed by those in charge of the above institutions.40