A history of “Busuanga,” an American hospital ship in Mindanao and Sulu, 1902-1919

• Main Author: Ringor, Jeanray Attento
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2020
• Subjects: Hospital ships > History; Hospital ships > Phiippines > Mindanao; History
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5908; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_masteral/article/12887/viewcontent/Ringor_Jeanray_11491396_A_History_of_Busuanga__an_American_Hospital_Ship_Partial.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

American public health initiatives are usually seen as apolitical. In the context of the American occupation in the Philippines, however, readings of colonial documentary sources suggest that initiatives in the different socio-economic areas, including Public Health, have been used as a tool to advance colonial rule. Primary sources found in the Rockefeller Archive Center in New York, for example, reveal that the American government has initiated various initiatives in its colonies in collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation. One of these initiatives is a medico-sanitary project in the Southern Philippines to attract the inhabitants of Mindanao and Sulu called the “Hospital Ship Busuanga.” This study presents a history of the Hospital Ship Busuanga as part of America’s policy of attraction in the Philippines. The history traces its journey first as a coast guard cutter in 1902, its transformation into a hospital ship in 1915, and finally its subsequent cease of operations in 1919. It looks into the roles played by doctors, missionaries, and government officials in the promotion and execution of the policy of attraction through the three main personalities involved in the creation and operation of the hospital ship Busuanga namely, Dr. Victor Heiser, Rt. Rev. Charles Brent and General Frank Carpenter. The study intends to serve as a lens in which one can find that the public health initiatives, like the Hospital Ship Busuanga have been used to serve more than its intended purpose.