Neocolonialism in the Philippines

From being regarded as one of the most promising East-Asian countries in the 1950s, the Philippines now has 8 out of 10 households living under hunger conditions as reported by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (2003). While poverty is popularly ascribed to corruption and overpopulation, these are just more of the repercussions than they are the root cause. The root cause of the economic crisis that besets the country is its neo-colonial state and failure to assert its sovereignty.

In paper, the country is independent and sovereign. In truth, the Philippines is in a neo-colonial state, oppressed through the subtle and systematic intervention of the U.S. government. The extent of the U.S. intervention extends to every facet of the Philippine society, politics, and economy. An example is how the U.S. government has been controlling presidential elections since 1935 to enforce a puppet government to preserve the country in a neo-colonial state, as admitted and exposed in an article written by former president Diosdado Macapagal.

What does it mean to be a neo-colony of the U.S.? What are the implications and consequences?

First and foremost, the country remains an agriculture-based economy in this post-industrial age. We often hear many politicians promoting agriculture-based economy, but less educated people, which are unfortunately the majority, do not see and understand what is amiss with this ideology. Being merely an agricultural nation means that the country does not have its own industries to transform the rich natural resources and raw materials into finished products. As such, the country exports raw materials at low cost, then depend on imported products from industrialized nations. Not only did the country become highly dependent and a mere consumer of imported products (which makes the country susceptible to profiteering), the country’s lack of heavy industries to efficiently transform the country’s...