Since the 1900s the U.S. presence had insulated the Philippine state from disturbances to its social stability and shielded it against any sense of an outside threat. Successive generations of Filipino politicians manipulated the colonial relationship to their advantage, using Washington to prop up a corrupt and inefficient political and economic system. Now the free ride is over. From Washington’s point of view, the Philippines may have been reduced from a strategic ally to just another poor client in need of American benevolence. But both sides should welcome the evolution of the relationship to one governed by straightforward economic and strategic considerations.
Relations with the United States will remain a major aspect of Philippine foreign policy: the former colonial power remains the country’s top trading partner. But the Philippines now have the chance to design the course of this relationship if it develops a strong and outward-looking economy. U.S. resources will then come into the country no longer as handouts but as revenues from trade and tourism, and as direct investment, joint-venture capital, and commercial loans. And the Philippines should welcome even the winding-down of U.S. aid, because it forces the country to face up to structural reforms needed in the economy.
The bases for this new beginning are sound. The historical association of the two countries has resulted not only in a shared belief in liberal democracy but in a large and growing Filipino American community. By 1990 Filipinos had become the United States’ most numerous ethnic Asians. The Filipino American community is potentially important as a source of investment and a lobby for Filipino interest in Washington, D.C. It also ensures that for many Filipino families, Philippine relations with the United States will remain special whatever turn the official relationship may take.
And while it may be fashionable to belittle the representative system the Americans transplanted to the Philippines, ordinary Filipinos do put their faith in it. Walden Bello, a left-wing scholar inquiring into why the communist rebellion has become marginalized, found one reason to be “to continuing vitality of the tradition of formal democratic electoral politics as a source of political legitimacy, not only among the middle class but also the peasantry and workers.
If the new relationship is to prosper, Filipinos will of course have to soothe U.S. anxieties about the Philippines. These include commercial piracy and violation of intellectual property rights, and the country’s increasing role in trans-shipping narcotics to the American market. And security cooperation must mean more than the passive kind of dependence on the U.S. that the Philippines developed in the postcolonial period.
Relations with the United States will remain a major aspect of Philippine foreign policy: the former colonial power remains the country’s top trading partner. But the Philippines now have the chance to design the course of this relationship if it develops a strong and outward-looking economy. U.S. resources will then come into the country no longer as handouts but as revenues from trade and tourism, and as direct investment, joint-venture capital, and commercial loans. And the Philippines should welcome even the winding-down of U.S. aid, because it forces the country to face up to structural reforms needed in the economy.
The bases for this new beginning are sound. The historical association of the two countries has resulted not only in a shared belief in liberal democracy but in a large and growing Filipino American community. By 1990 Filipinos had become the United States’ most numerous ethnic Asians. The Filipino American community is potentially important as a source of investment and a lobby for Filipino interest in Washington, D.C. It also ensures that for many Filipino families, Philippine relations with the United States will remain special whatever turn the official relationship may take.
And while it may be fashionable to belittle the representative system the Americans transplanted to the Philippines, ordinary Filipinos do put their faith in it. Walden Bello, a left-wing scholar inquiring into why the communist rebellion has become marginalized, found one reason to be “to continuing vitality of the tradition of formal democratic electoral politics as a source of political legitimacy, not only among the middle class but also the peasantry and workers.
If the new relationship is to prosper, Filipinos will of course have to soothe U.S. anxieties about the Philippines. These include commercial piracy and violation of intellectual property rights, and the country’s increasing role in trans-shipping narcotics to the American market. And security cooperation must mean more than the passive kind of dependence on the U.S. that the Philippines developed in the postcolonial period.
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