SAN DIEGO — The Navy will stop recruiting Filipino nationals at the end of the year, officials said Wednesday, ending a unique program under which tens of thousands of Filipinos have served in the Navy since the end of the Spanish-American War, when the Philippines became a U.S. colony.
Navy spokeswoman Lt. Deborah Carson said the recruitment of Filipino sailors was formalized in 1947, when the United States and the Philippines signed an agreement on military bases.
The agreement, which allowed the United States to maintain military bases in the Philippines, will end in December. The end of the recruitment program resulted partly from the end of the bases agreement, Carson said. Reductions in the U.S. military are a contributing factor, she added.
Filipinos were the only foreign nationals allowed to enlist in the U.S. armed forces without first immigrating to this country and the Navy was the only military branch they could join.
