Benjamin Mascarenas graduated from the University of Santo Tomas, in Manila and by 1961 had joined the Division of Architecture within the Manila Board of Public Works, whilst also holding a professorship at the Far Eastern University Institute of Technology. In 1961 he is noted in the Philippine Architecture and Building Journal as being funded through the Colombo Plan to travel to the UK to attend the Department of Tropical Architecture course at the Architectural Association. The article notes that “From England he plans to visit various internationally renowned architectural firms and institutions in Continental Europe, United States, Mexico, South America and Japan, to observe advance trends in architecture, planning and housing.” Mascarenas is recorded as successfully graduating from the course in 1962 and was subsequently appointed as the inaugural Head of the Far Eastern University’s new Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts in 1970. Details of his subsequent career are unclear but a Filippino architect of his name was admitted to the US, as “a worker of distinguished merit and ability” on 18th September, 1972, just one week before President Marcos declared martial law in the Philippines. 

Sources 

• Architectural Association Student Register, 1961-62. AA Archives 
• Architectural Association Council Minutes, 19th February, 1962. AA Archives 
• Architectural Association Membership List, 1969. 
• Philippine Architecture and Building Journal 1961, Vol.2, Issue 2, p50 
• Congressional Record, Senate, April 26th, 1979, Vol. 125, Part 7, p.8828