Paco Citizen Academy (百閣公民學校) was established as a private tutorial school in June 1922 by Tseng Jen-Ping. He, together with a group of Chinese immigrants, saw the need to establish a school to help new immigrants adjust to their new environment. Included in this group’s vision was the preservation of their rich cultural heritage, an aim that remains with the school to this day.

In its effort to make education more responsive to the needs of the immigrants, the Chinese Education Association took over and managed the school in 1924. The pioneers of the original tutorial school did not offer much resistance for they share the same vision for the school. They considered the school as the Third Campus of “Pu-Ti” School. They invited one of the famous educators in the Chinese community, Mr. Ong Chian-Sheng, to be its first principal. With the successful management of the school, it was eventually granted independence by the Chinese Education Association.

The administrators saw the tremendous help that an alumni association could offer in the growth and development of the institution. So, in 1936, they organized the first alumni association. The alumni association worked hand in hand with the administrators and showed their loyalty and dedication to the ideals of the school by providing the school with new ideas and financial assistance. Eventually, the school population increased, and it forced the administrators to work for its expansion.

Expansion began in the year 1940. All their efforts were put to waste when the Second World War broke out. The newly built school building was destroyed by fire and the Japanese troops took over the country. The school was left with no choice but to stop its operation for three years.

The country was freed from its Japanese invaders in 1945 and Filipinos started to rebuild the country from the ravages of war. Reconstruction efforts included that of the administrators of Pu-Ti School. They rebuilt the school and started all over again educating the Chinese community in the Paco area but under a new name, “Kuang-Hwa” School.

In 1948, the school was renamed Paco Chinese School with Mr. Cua Chun-Ti as its Principal. It was also during his term that the first School Board of Trustees was organized and elected. Under his leadership, they mounted the Grade School Art and Craft Exhibit on the Chinese New Year of 1949. It was a resounding success that it earned recognition from educators in the community. They gave it a score of “A’s”. The children deserved the excellent rating and the praise for they worked hard for it.

Instead of going out to play in the streets, these Chinese boys and girls would go back to the empty classrooms to take up their carving knives and crayons or sewing kits and paintbrush. Their success inspired the Board of Trustees and the Administrators to plan for another expansion. The parents who saw their children’s achievements through the exhibit offered their help.

From 1922 to 1950, the school was housed at Dart, Paco but aspiring for stability and permanence, they acquired their very own lot and built a wooden schoolhouse in 1950 at Paz Street. A three-story building was erected in 1964 to accommodate the increasing number of students. The school moved to its new house with 265 pupils in the first to the sixth grade and 11 teachers, 3 Filipinos and 8 Chinese. It is worth mentioning here that for almost 29 years the members of the Paco Chinese Parents-Teachers Association helped the school survive. They paid fees, enrolled their children and relatives, and underwrote the deficits of the lean years.

It was in 1984 when the most ambitious expansion began. Mr. Vicente K.T. Gutierrez, Chairman of the 36th Board of Trustees, together with the members of the Board, presented his expansion plan which included a High School Level to various civic-oriented business groups of Paco – the Paco Chinese Chamber of Commerce, Paco Fil-Chinese Grocers’ Association, and the school’s Alumni Association. The three civic-oriented business groups were true to their nature for they responded enthusiastically and generously by providing the much-needed money through a fund-raising activity.

The cornerstone of the new building was graciously laid by the then Secretary of the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports, Dr. Lourdes R. Quisumbing. The building that proudly stands now and houses the Paco Citizen Academy Foundation was completed in January 1988.

The most recent iteration was only possible through the generosity of Mr. Lucio Tan and the Alumni who have generously supported the construction of the school building and indirectly the building of the lives of our young people.