Silvestre, Ralph Ryan

B.A POS-III

Filipino Political Thought

Economic Relations with the United States after Philippine Independence

The Philippines after the war was in a shaky predicament. We have to consider that

rebuilding any country after a war, especially its economy would be quite difficult. It doesn’t

help that the Philippine economy remained highly dependent on United States markets--more

dependent, according to United States high commissioner Paul McNutt, than any single state was

dependent on the rest of the country. We were dependent to them to a fault. We literally can not

survive without the united states during this time. Therefore, cutting our ties with the United

States would be unthinkable, illogical, and nigh-impossible. It’s like chopping off any of a

table’s leg, once you do- it’s useless for it can no longer balance on its own. This is unfortunately

our fate, post-war in the Philippines and I can only imagine what nightmare this would be for

large landowners, particularly those with hectarage in sugar, and wouldn’t blame them for their

campaign for an extension to free trade.

The Philippine Trade Act, passed by the United States Congress in 1946 and commonly

known as the Bell Act, stipulated that free trade be continued until 1954; thereafter, tariffs would

be increased 5 percent annually until full amounts were reached in 1974. Quotas were

established for Philippine products both for free trade and tariff periods. At the same time, there

would be no restrictions on the entry of United States products to the Philippines, nor would

there be Philippine import duties. The Philippine peso was tied at a fixed rate to the United States
dollar. This gives the United States unfair leverage to us Filipinos. They pretty much control the

flow of the economy, dictate its course and do anything to its advantage.

The most controversial provision of the Bell Act was the "parity" clause that granted

United States citizens equal economic rights with Filipinos, for example, in the exploitation of

natural resources. If parity privileges of individuals or corporations were infringed upon, the

president of the United States had the authority to revoke any aspect of the trade agreement.

Payment of war damages amounting to US$620 million, as stipulated in the Philippine

Rehabilitation Act of 1946, was made contingent on Philippine acceptance of the parity clause.

This is downright blasphemy, it’s as if the United States never even left. Our independence had

an asterisk. We don’t win anything here, there’s nothing to gain but the same can’t be said to the

United States. It’s a win-win situation for them. Considering the vast natural resources that we

have, they struck gold on us.

The Bell Act was approved by the Philippine legislature on July 2, two days before

independence. The parity clause, however, required an amendment relating to the 1935

constitution's thirteenth article, which reserved the exploitation of natural resources for Filipinos.

This amendment could be obtained only with the approval of three-quarters of the members of

the House and Senate and a plebiscite. The denial of seats in the House to six members of the

leftist Democratic Alliance and three Nacionalistas on grounds of fraud and violent campaign

tactics during the April 1946 election enabled Roxas to gain legislative approval on September

18. The definition of three-quarters became an issue because three-quarters of the sitting

members, not the full House and Senate, had approved the amendment, but the Supreme Court

ruled in favor of the administration's interpretation.

 In March 1947, a plebiscite on the amendment was held; only 40 percent of the electorate

participated, but the majority of those approved the amendment. The Bell Act, particularly the

parity clause, was seen by critics as an inexcusable surrender of national sovereignty. The

pressure of the sugar barons, particularly those of Roxas's home region of the western Visayan

Islands, and other landowner interests, however, was irresistible. In 1955 a revised United States-

Philippine Trade Agreement (the Laurel-Langley Agreement) was negotiated. This treaty

abolished the United States authority to control the exchange rate of the peso, made parity

privileges reciprocal, extended the sugar quota, and extended the time period for the reduction of

other quotas and for the progressive application of tariffs on Philippine goods exported to the

United States. I can see why Roxas was labeled as a collaborator, quisling. I mean look at it, it’s

as if even before it was signed there was already an under the table agreement and they were just

simply waiting for their plan to unfold.

Personally, I don’t completely agree on the actions that Roxas had taken but I can’t say I

blame him either. Yeah, he can sweet-talk us all he wants saying that it’s for our own good and

the treaty underwent the necessary revisions and procedures. It reminds me of Rizal’s ideology

of being Spain’s province. It’s still a compromise, for it is better than being just a colony of

Spain but this gave us equal rights, and justice we were not ready to be on our own. Bottomline:

in this case it’s the United States showing us the ropes but with a price to pay. We did lose face,

some might argue had given up our sovereignty, lost control of the economy. But we did gain a

powerful ally and someone to rely on when worse comes to worst. It’s better than being

colonized or having US as a foe if we did refuse. So, I think Roxas did what he could do for our

country.
 Reference:

• https://kahimyang.com/kauswagan/articles/2163/americas-interference-in-the-philippine-

elections-of-1946-the-triumph-of-macarthurs-candidate-roxas-over-osme-a

• http://malacanang.gov.ph/manuel-roxas/

• https://www.onthisday.com/people/manuel-roxas

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• https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1948/06/21/proclamation-no-76-s-1948/

• https://history.army.mil/books/coldwar/huk/ch1.htm

• https://www.dnd.gov.ph/ramon-f-magsaysay.html

• http://malacanang.gov.ph/presidents/third-republic/diosdado-macapagal/
• New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely

Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Philippines Department of Tourism, Compton's

Encyclopedia, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New

Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly,

The Economist, Foreign Policy, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, and various books, websites and

other publications.