Obviously from the standpoint of the US government, differences between Icelanders and Iranians are trivial compared to differences between Filipinos and Malaysians.
My guess would be that academic performance by Filipino students is more like that of Hispanics than of Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, or Vietnamese-Americans, so they are seen to deserve racial preferences.
Maybe they should just lump the Filipinos in with the other Hispanics --- really they are from a former Spanish colony and many are Spanish surnamed. Being from a Spanish colony is really what links "hispanics".