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During the past legislative session, I was closely following either in person or live on YouTube two companion bills that would benefit Filipinos in the University of Hawaii system.

If signed by Gov. Josh Green, — the final version to emerge last week — will provide three full-time faculty and administrative positions at the university, which were requested by the UH Pamantasan Council.

Established in 1988, the council seeks to enhance the representation and status of Filipino students, staff and faculty in the UH system but has never had any full-time staff to plan and coordinate its ongoing activities.

Having such administrative staff is one of the major recommendations of the Pamantasan Council in a report it submitted last year to the Legislature. The latter had requested this report from the university on the Pamantasan Council’s efforts to improve the academic success and status of Filipinos in the UH system for this year’s legislative session.

In the House, HB 968 was introduced by several Filipinos, including Reps. Della Au Belatti, Sonny Ganaden, Vice Speaker Greggor Ilagan and Rachele Lamosao. Joining them were 11 other representatives, including the chairs of the House Education and Technology Committee, Amy Perruso, and of the Culture, Arts and International Affairs Committee, Adrian Tam.

In the Senate, two Filipinos, Higher Education Committee Chair Donna Mercado Kim and Assistant Majority Whip Henry Aquino, co-sponsored the companion Senate Bill 959, which was ultimately deferred.

Both in the House and Senate, the Pamantasan measures sailed through committee hearings, including the money committees — House Finance and Senate Ways and Means — with minimal and cordial questioning of those who spoke in favor of them.

Led in an organized campaign by Amy Agbayani, UH emeritus assistant vice chancellor for student equity, excellence and diversity, numerous Pamantasan Council faculty and staff throughout the university system sent in written testimony or testified in person or by YouTube in support of the two measures.

Several Filipino advocacy organizations, such as Filipinos for Affirmative Action, and student organizations, such as the Samahang Filipino Club at Hawaii Community College, also joined the effort to express support.

In the House, the first committee to hold a hearing on HB 968 was the Culture, Arts and International Affairs Committee, which does not seem especially relevant to the purpose of the proposed bill. It made me wonder if it was assigned to that group to increase the chances of the measure being defeated because that would be a third committee it had to gain approval from in addition to the Higher Education and Technology and the Finance committees.

Toward the end of the short hearing, Tam, the committee chair, announced that HB 968 was amended to include $310,000 as an appropriation. He and Perruso would be strong supporters of the proposed bill for the next three months through the conference committee hearings.

In early February, HB 968 was approved unanimously by the other two House committees to which it had been referred. A month later, it was passed by the House with only one dissenting vote by Republican Elijah Pierick, and so was transmitted to the Senate.

In the Senate, the Higher Education Committee unanimously recommended that SB 959 be passed unamended. But on April 6, WAM Committee Chair Donovan Dela Cruz announced at a hearing that the committee’s recommendation was that the measure pass with an amendment, which was to remove the three positions.

I was extremely surprised and troubled by this development. Contributing to my concern was that Donna Mercado Kim, who co-introduced SB 959, is a member of the WAM Committee and, as chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee, had led a very positive hearing on it. Another WAM Committee member is Henry Aquino, a co-sponsor of the proposed bill. Furthermore, according to Amy Agbayani, “Supporting the Pamantasan Council is a priority issue of the Filipino Senate and House Caucus.” 

Dela Cruz, Kim and Aquino are all of Filipino ancestry, as is WAM Committee Vice Chair Gil Keith-Agaran and committee member Lorraine Inouye.

As long-time Democratic legislators, one might have thought that they could have prevailed on their fellow Democratic committee members to keep the three positions in SB 959. But I don’t know if there was any voting or discussion on that issue, especially by Kim and Aquino.

The amended measure was later approved by the Senate with 23 aye votes, including by Republican Kurt Fevella with one Democratic senator excused. Only one senator, Republican Brenton Awa, voted against it.

However, the House committees that had held hearings on HB 968 did not agree with the removal of the three positions, so a conference committee meeting was scheduled for April 25.

The House conferees included several Filipinos: Rachele Lamosao, co-chair representing the Finance Committee, Trish La Chica, Rose Martinez and David Alcos, the sole Republican among them. The two other committee co-chairs were Perruso and Tam.

The Senate conferees included two Filipinos among their four members — Donna Mercado Kim, chair, and Gil Keith-Agaran. Hence, Filipinos were a majority of the entire conference committee, although one was a Republican.

At the first committee hearing, Kim, in her role as chair of the Senate conferees, announced that the three positions were restored in the proposed bill. As I learned, Agbayani had contacted her about including the positions, and Kim was agreeable; otherwise, they would have been eliminated by the WAM Committee.

In the absence of a viable race-based affirmative action program for hiring underrepresented minorities at UH, Filipinos have had to develop ways to increase their representation at the university, as have other minority groups.

Working with Filipino legislators, especially if they occupy leadership positions, is one of the more effective ways for the Filipino community to advance its interests, although non-Filipino lawmakers, at least Democrats, have been supportive of Filipino community concerns.

Since the WAM and Finance committees had not released funds for the proposed bill, several other conference committee hearings were scheduled and rescheduled over the next several days to meet the April 28 deadline for bills to be approved.

Finally, as the 6 p.m. deadline on that day for finalizing bills was fast approaching, HB 968 received unanimous approval to recommend passage by all 10 members of the conference committee, including Republicans David Alcos and Fevella. The bill still requires the governor’s approval to be enacted.

The bill provides for one faculty position at Leeward Community College and another at Maui College and an administrative position at UH Manoa for the Pamantasan Council.

As envisioned by the council, the faculty member at LCC will offer courses and coordinate its Filipino Studies certificate program, which is available to all UH community college students. The instructor at Maui College will teach Ilokano language courses, which are currently not offered at that campus.

As director of the Pamantasan Council, the administrator at UH Manoa will organize and coordinate council events throughout the UH system, including recruitment and retention activities for students to increase their numbers.

The issue of how proposed bills are approved or defeated at the Legislature highlights the power wielded by committee chairs. They can and do make unilateral decisions without consulting their committee members.

While Dela Cruz announced that the three positions were eliminated from the proposed bill, Perruso and Tam disagreed, so the conference committee process to reach agreement on HB 968 commenced.

As chair of the Senate conferees, Kim also played a major role in restoring the three positions. If not for her and the House committee chairs, Perruso and Tam, the well organized and supported collective effort to increase Filipino faculty and staff representation in the UH system would have been defeated, despite their holding key leadership positions in the Legislature.