UP Geodetic Engineering Club - Manila, Philippines

As far back as the Spanish regime in the Philippines, there were people who performed land measurements. They were called agrimensores. But these agrimensores were equipped with nothing but compass and tape, thus the questionable accuracy of their surveys led to controversies-some not yet resolved to the present day. So when the Americans came, a new government unit was organized-the Bureau of Public Lands which was staffed at the top by Americans.The first American Director of Lands was Charles A. Sleeper. When F.B. Harrison became governor general, he adopted the "Filipinization" policy. Vicente Mills became the first Filipino Director of Lands.The Bureau then established a surveying school which was in the same grounds as the Philippine School of Arts and Trades. The school  

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offered scholarships to students for its two- year surveying courses, after which these Bureau of Lands "pensionados" or scholars had to serve the government.It was not until 1925 that an agreement was made to incorporate the School of Surveying of the Bureau of Lands into the UP College of Engineering. The School of Surveying was a unit of the College of Engineering offering the Associate in Surveying title to its graduates.