THE PHILIPPINES AND THE UNITED STATES

The assimilation of the United States in the Philippines is highly transparent. From the kind of products on shopping centers, the kind of dress we Filipinos wear, the hamburgers we eat, the jazz we are dancing, and ultimately the use of English as a medium of communication are reflective of this cultural integration.
Before the Philippines was colonized by the United States, the prevailing culture was that of the Hispanic feature. The 300 years of Spanish occupation generally did not created the imitation of the Spanish way of life among Filipinos. Instead of imitating the Spaniards, the Filipino’s were repugnant on them. The disobedience of the Filipinos to their colonizers and the rebellions especially on the part of the most exploited masses against the oppression of the Spaniards justifies that the Filipino people are disgusted on the Spanish colonial rule. However, this prospect gradually changed when the United States entered the picture. After the “mock battle” at Manila Bay between the Spanish Navy and the United Sates Naval Force, the Americans were thought to be the “savior” of the Philippines from the wicked Spain. Therefore there was a rapid acceptance on the American means most especially its language.
Why did the Americans colonized the Philippines? According to Teodoro A. Agoncillo the main motives of the Americans for taking possession of the Philippines were mainly economic and political. Before the end of the 18th century, the United States has achieved the condition of monopoly in its capitalist system and in effect created an over-production crisis. The surplus needs to be circulated in another non-American economic sphere. The Philippines was then colonized by the United States to be the one to acquire the economic surplus and to be the source of raw materials for the capitalist production. The Philippines was the “lake of America’’ in the Pacific Ocean and was the pedestal for the eventual colonization in Asia especially China. (Kurso sa Pambansang Demokrasya, Kilusang Mayo Uno,1989). The capitalist nature of the United States was therefore an essential factor on colonizing the Philippines. Politically, the Philippines, for the United States is a steeping stone for further expansion in the other side of the Pacific. The Philippines can be made a military installation in the Pacific because it is in a strategic location for American military activities. Religion was only an accessorial motivation because it does not really justify the colonization in the Philippines by the Americans. Protestantism, although significantly affected the Catholicism in the Philippines, was never a part of any colonial policy in the Philippines.
The motives of the Americans were materially based because they are politically and economically motivated. We cannot say that the American society is greedy because what motivated them to colonize other countries were mostly economical. The United States as a nation, which was never conquered by other countries, have this sense of “educating the barbaric world”. Their identity as a nation was never changed because at the first place they evolved as a society that has a distinctive culture, language, norms, and standards. The American people believe that they were the “standard”.
Now that the Philippines was colonized by the Americans, was there any significant transformation in the colonial liaison as compared to the relationship between the Spaniards and the Filipinos? Essentially, there was none. The mode of exploitation was simply concealed into a perceptive and deceiving system. Specifically, the transformation was evident in the field of economy.
During the colonization of the Americans, most companies were already owned and run by American investors. Colonial trade was formalized thru the implementation of the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Act which secured the tax-free entrance of US-made products. In agriculture, instead of paying high taxes and tributes to the authorities, farmers are deceived to the idea of nourishing their crops with fertilizers from American companies. The idea that the Philippines is an agricultural country and that the Philippines must develop its lands for agriculture also came from the United States. Personally, I believe that this is a strategic measure to prevent the Philippines from desiring to develop other aspects of its resources like the Fisheries sector. In industry, the Filipinos were convinced that the more foreign investors invest in the country, the more profit will the Philippines acquire. The local industry was not given any significant importance as that of the foreign investors. This is again evident until today. Our government is generally allowing more foreign capital to enter in the country. It is not wrong to attract foreign investors; however as a result of intense competition between local companies, our local capital is weakened and is sometimes strained to close. Workers on these local companies are then affected. The best example is the mining industry in the country. The Mining Act of 1995 allows trans-national companies to quarry in the country. Instead of investing in itself, the Philippines even allowed non-Filipino companies to utilize our resources. In general, the Philippines was only used as a resource environment for the United States. The Filipinos were mere cheap laborers for the Americans.
The Philippines was the satellite nation of the colonial United States. This relationship was obscured by the slogans and policies like “Philippine-US Friendship”, “Military Assistance Program”, etc.
The United States colonialism produced major and, sad to say, permanent effects on the Filipino society. The educational system, politics, public welfare, mentality, and ultimately the culture were all altered to meet the American design of colonization.
Probably, the most important “contribution” of the Americans was the educational system that they created in the Philippines. According to Renato Constantino, education served as a weapon of colonial conquest in the Philippines. Through education, they have introduced concepts that are necessary to create a Filipino people that are under the colonial goals. The Filipinos, he said, had to be disoriented through the education from their nationalist goals because they had to become good colonials. The Filipinos were then became conformists to the colonial attributes. The Americans, instead of using the Tagalog language, which is basically the most popularly spoken language, utilized English as the medium of instruction. This is a calculated move to pacify the people, Renato Contantino said. We became literate of English and became conversant with the globalizing world. The kind of education that the Americans have established in the Philippines was really important because it made us not only capable of speaking and comprehending English but made us competitive in the Western cultures. The public school system is very helpful among isolated and deprived places in the country. The Hispanic type of education never satisfied the needs of the Filipinos on that time compared to the public system of instruction that the Americans introduced. Through the public education that is free and accessible to most of the Filipinos that time, the Philippines had improved its literacy rate and the competency of its people as compared to other nations.
The political system in the Philippines during the American period until now was basically designed to correlate with that of the United States. The democratic system that the United States fashioned in the Philippines was very reflective of the American concept of liberty as a free nation. The municipal election of the Americans was very different of that of the Spanish time. Only the elites or the “illustrados” can then vote during the Spanish time vis-à-vis the general public during the American occupation. The creation of the bicameral congress also is an American ideology.
Public welfare also developed in the country as a result of the improvement in the concepts of public health and epidemiology. The Americans contributed at a large extent the importance of hygiene among Filipinos. They also created a Bureau of Public Health on early 1900’s. Contrary to the nature of Bureau of Health of the Spanish authorities, the Bureau of Public Health that the Americans established in the Philippines did not only fight diseases but also inculcated the obliteration of ignorance and false beliefs.
Perhaps the most unhelpful consequence of the American settlement was the indoctrination of Western way of life. The idea is that the Westerners’ way of life is the ultimate experience and that Filipinos must also imitate them. The “Big-Man Syndrome” ultimately became part of the Filipino attributes. Most Filipinos until now are more attracted to brands like the Marithé François Girbaud, JAG, LEE, VICTORIA’S SECRET, etc., than locally designed products. The inculcation of the concept that imported goods are best in quality tricked Filipino consumers and created a notion that local products lack the necessary quality controls to insure product efficiency. This affected the local production and resulted on the economic failure of local textile industry.
The Filipino culture was the most affected component of our identity. Because of the American settlement, most of our local traditions were gone. One of the best example is the value of respecting the elderly people. Nowadays, most liberal families are no more using the particles po and opo. Our language is also directly influenced by the Americans. English is widely utilized as a means of communication. Presently, even the public office of the Republic Philippines for the development of its national language, the Surian ng Wikang Pambansa, is considering the English language as a precursor in translating any foreign word into the Filipino language. The way we dress is also contemplative of Western fashion. Instead of being proud to wear the Baro’t Saya, Filipinos are even ashamed of displaying them on public. Fast-food culture was also introduced to us by the Americans. The hamburger, the pasta, the cola, the pizza, are among the few which Filipinos are captivated to. The kind of music, which the youth and the elderly, is also attracted are mainly that of the Western origin. The jazz, the foxtrot, the waltz, these are non Filipino.
From the very beginning of American colonialism, we Filipinos were attracted to the kind of life that the colonizers have commenced. The Americans, instead of being hated, even gained the status of respect from us. The assimilation between the Philippine and American culture was perfectly establish for the benefit of the colonizers.