, we decided for reasons of self interest to divest ourselves of the Philippines before local leaders wanted full independence, under conditions (world depression and looming war) which bid fair to destroy the Philippine nation, and nearly did.47
When "popular" elections were introduced, those qualified to vote had to be male, had to be at least twenty-three years old, had to have held a municipal office before August 13, 1898, had to he literate in either English or Spanish, and had either to have owned real property valued at at least $230 or to have paid an annual tax of $15. The qualifications were formulated by the Taft Conunission upon the recommendation of Filipinos whom they consulted and who, as it turned out, wanted stricter qualifications for greater exclusivity.48 The elite thus gained the most from the system and "were definitely recognized as the governing class. "49 According to 0. D. Corpuz, only 3 % of the national population comprised the electorate, so "the growth and continuing hegemony of the great local family dynasties in Filipino politics" was made possible.50 The principalia of the Spanish period mediated between the masses and the new colonizers. They performed the same role in a different regime. The Americans needed them to impose order and leadership and to pacify the population. Historians of the era referred to the American colonial period as "compadre colonialism" during which period the Filipino elite became compadres, or close friends, of American governors, thereby establishing a network of alliances among themselves. According to Peter W. Stanley:
There was a hidden price for all this. America's reliance upon collaboration and suasion to maintain its insular empire made the collaborators a privileged group. Positioning themselves between the two real loci of power and authority in the islands, the American government and the mass of the Filipino people, they became indispensable mediators. Since the only credible collaborators (the only people with the authority, outlook, and education necessary both to deal with Americans and to deliver the allegiance of the people) were the members of the established elite the imperialism of suasion thus became a bulwark of class interest."
The Filipino elite continued to solidify position and power through collaboration with the American colonizers. "Free trade" with the United States created a dependent Filipino economy. The Tariff Acts of 1909 and 1919 increased the volume of trade between the colonizer and the colonized. A flood of imported, mass-produced, American goods discouraged domestic industrialization and greater economic diversification. The Philippines continued to be an exporter of a few agricultural products and raw materials, such as abaca, coconut, sugar, and tobacco, the market for which was pegged for the United States. Economic dependency on the United States shaped the Filipino taste for the consumption of material goods. That taste was referred to as colonial mentality; current observers call it "hamburgerization. "52
The life of the commonwealth government was interrupted by the Japanese invasion.' Japan's militarism grew in the 1930s, as did its desperate need for natural resources to supply its burgeoning industrialization. Having limited territory and natural resources but unlimited energy and will, the Japanese desired to achieve true imperial status by establishing a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. It promised peace, prosperity, and independence to other Asian countries. Japan succeeded in rousing nationalist and anti-western feelings among other Asians; however, they did not succeed with the Filipinos. The Americans had already promised the Filipinos political independence and had granted relative freedom compared to Japanese control. American cruelty during the Philippine-American War had been forgotten. Now Filipinos were fighting with Americans and supporting them against the Japanese. Further sentimental ties between Filipinos and Americans were forged during the World War II. The Filipinos looked at the Americans with "utang na loob" or a "debt of gratitude." General Douglas MacArthur was welcomed as a folk hero because he fulfilled his promise to the Philippines.S4
On July 4, 1946, the Philippines regained its political independence. Aided by the sentimentality produced by the war and the forgotten ill-feelings of the brutal conquest, the Filipinos allowed sets of impositions to he added to their constitution. Those impositions, couched in friendly terms, were labeled as "special," but others termed them "neocolonial." To high American officials, the Philippines was a loose friend and ally; to others, the Philippines was an American satellite."
Devastated by war and needing major rehabilitation, the government of the Philippines amended the Philippine Constitution granting equal rights to Americans in the exploitation and use of natural resources.