UNIT VIII.

FILIPINO-AMERICAN RELATIONS
Overview

This unit gives you a wide array of knowledge of the start of Filipino-American
Relations. Further, this unit will teach you some of the laws, agreement and treaties made
between the two countries and its effects on their ties.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this chapter, I am able to:

1. describe the Filipino-American Relationship;
2. identify and recall the laws, treaties and agreements between the two nations;
and
3. compare the Filipino-American Relations then and now.

Lesson Proper

The Filipino-American Relations

• The US colonization of the Philippines was couched in President William McKinley’s
"benevolent assimilation," which meant that the US domination was all for civilizing
the Filipinos.
• The mission was considered “the white man's burden." According to President
Mckinley, is substituting the mild sway of justice and right for arbitrary rule. In the
fulfilment of this high mission, supporting the temperate administration of affairs for
the greatest good of the governed, there must be sedulously maintained the
strong arm of authority, to repress disturbance and to overcome all obstacles to
the bestowal of the blessings of good and stable government upon the people of
the Philippine Islands under the free flag of the United States.
• The first 600 American teachers, called the Thomasites, would teach young
Filipinos the English language and, with it, the American culture.

Thomasites (Image credits to: bing.com)

 • The Balangiga Massacre in 1901 turned a town in Samar into a “howling
wilderness." US General Jacob H. Smith ordered the killing of everyone over the
age of 10.

Balangiga Bells (Image credits to: bing.com)

• The US liberation of Manila during World War II left the city in ruins, as the USAFFE
dropped bombs after bombs to expel the Japanese forces. A year later, in 1946,
the Philippines was granted its independence.
• In 1947, an agreement was made to give the United States a 99-year lease for the
continued operation of its military bases in the Philippines.
• The Mutual Defense Treaty was a treaty made in 1951, indicating support for each
other in case the United States or the Philippines was attacked by an external
party.
• The US military bases in the Far East were strategic locations for the Cold War that
ensued right after World War II. The Philippines became its strongest ally in fighting
the threat of Communism or anything that resembled it.
• On Philippine soil, the United States sponsored the presidency of Ramon
Magsaysay to quell the peasant-formed Huk Rebellion (Karnow,1989, pp. 346—
47).
• Aiding the Philippine government, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
deployed psychological warfare in which the Huk rebels were made to believe
that an aswang was hunting them (Derain, 2017).

Post-US bases Era

• For a time, Filipino-American relations mainly focus on economic and commercial

ties, including Fidel Ramos's declaration, in 1996, Of 4 July as the Philippine-
American Friendship Day.
• Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) is a new agreement between the two countries
to resume their bilateral military exercises and enhance defense cooperation.
• The US conducted ship visits to Philippine ports and combined military exercises
with the Philippine military.
• VFA remains in place until both parties agree to terminate it. The Visiting Forces
Agreement, however, was implemented in 1999, under Joseph Estrada's
presidency.
 • In 2002, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo expressed support for the US war on
terror and hosted the first Balikatan Exercises, a yearly joint exercise Of the
Philippine and US army. Extending its war on terror in the Philippines, the US sent its
troops to Basilan and Zamboanga to hunt the Abu Sayaff group.

Laws and other Treaties of Filipino American Relations

• The Treaty of Paris, signed on 10 December 1898, transferred ownership of the

Philippines from Spain to the United States at the cost of 20 million dollars.
• Jones Law, or the Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916, stipulated independence of
the Philippines as soon as a stable government was established. It declared the
purpose of the United States to end its sovereignty over the country.
• Tydings-Mcduffie Act, or the Philippine Independence Act, defined the
establishment of a formal Philippine constitution by a constitutional convention.
• Through the 1935 Constitution, the Philippines, from 1935 to 1946, adopted a
Commonwealth government, which served as a transitional administration that
would prepare the country for its independence.
• On 4 July 1946, the United States granted the Philippines its independence, but on
certain conditions.

July 04, 1946 (Image credits to: bing.com)