HAYWARD -- Kim Huggett went to the Philippines to promote educational opportunities at Cal State Hayward, but after witnessing a coup attempt, he learned a few lessons of his own.

"It was a wonderful political science lesson and a sobering reminder not to take democracy for granted," said Huggett, the university's director of public affairs.

Huggett traveled to the Philippines late last month to visit three of the four universities with which Cal State Hayward has student exchange agreements.

His goal was to re-energize the exchange program by emphasizing the university's large Filipino-American student population, active Filipino-American Student Association and bachelor's degree program in Filipino Studies.

Huggett not only returned earlier this month with a list of prospective Filipino exchange students, he brought back a memory of how much cultures have to learn from one another.

When Huggett arrived in Manila on July 26, word of a coup d'etat was abuzz. Troops had swarmed the presidential palace "ostensibly for a drill, but people in the street believed the government knew something was up," Huggett said.

Huggett woke up at 6:30 the next morning at the downtown Hotel Nikko and opened his drapes to see a machine gun-mounted armored personnel carrier and hundreds of troops. Two blocks away, rebels troops had taken over the Oakwood Hotel, he said.

Before the U.S. Embassy and hotel delivered written warnings not to leave the hotel, he went outside, made his way past security checkpoints and walked five blocks to meet a guide who took him to a famous waterfalls south of the city.

"I felt more curiosity than anything else," he said, adding that he was taking cues from civilians who seemed relatively calm and unfazed.

Huggett was struck by how the momentous day in his own life hardly fazed the Filipino people, who had witnessed seven bloody coup attempts in the 1980s.

By about 11 p.m. that same day, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared the crisis over, and rebel soldiers had disabled explosive charges they set around a downtown shopping complex and were piling into trucks to be taken into custody, Huggett said.

Huggett's guide asked him how many coup attempts the United States has experienced in its history.

"It's a reasonable question, because the Philippines adopted so many of the democratic institutions and constitutional protections enjoyed by Americans," he said. "Why shouldn't America experience the same instability?"

Huggett responded with an American history lesson about George Washington and the role he played in resigning as Army general to serve as a civilian leader. But at the same time, Huggett had learned his own lesson in appreciating American democracy.

That lesson only fueled Huggett's belief in the importance of exchange programs with the Philippines, he said.

Native Filipinos who visit Cal State Hayward also offer a wealth of insight when it comes to one of the ongoing philosophical questions in Filipino Studies class, "What is a Filipino?" said Efren Padilla, director of the university's Filipino American Studies Committee.

The answer is broadening and becoming more inclusive, he said, particularly with the diaspora of Filipinos around the globe.