US Imperialism—Its Stranglehold on Philippine Society

Oct. 15, 2014

In our desire to understand the perennial predicament in our country we need to revisit our past history.  We need to reexamine how our past presidents  ruled  and how their rule has perpetuated the deplorable situation  our country has fallen into.  Time and again we need to pound our heads and remind ourselves that –

Ang hindi lumilingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makararating sa paroroonan.

When the Philippines was  established in 1946 upon the granting of a bogus Independence by the United States of America, Manuel Acuna Roxas was installed as the first president of the new-born Philippine Republic. Thereupon, President Roxas imposed upon himself  the task of  requesting the United States of America to extend reparations money  for the war damage suffered by the Philippines because our country, especially the major cities, was subjected to intense bombings by the Americans  purportedly to flush out the Japanese forces that had dug in at a time when the Pacific War was about to end.

The Americans agreed to give war damage money only if the Republic of the Philippines amended the 1935 Constitution to give equal rights to Americans in the exploitation of our natural resources, such as timber, mining,  logging,  etcetera,  as well as in the operation of public utilities.  This was the so called Parity Amendment. .

It was a blackmail.  And Manuel A. Roxas was only too willing  as an accomplice to this imperialistic design of the Americans  by virtue of his vulnerability as a confirmed collaborator.  He joined the Japanese puppet government in the Philippines during the Second World War. In short, this was a way of exonerating him of his treasonous crime against the Filipino nation.  Verily, the deal was concluded with Roxas installed as chief executive in exchange for the  Parity Rights.

As president of the Republic,  Manuel A. Roxas  engineered the acceptance of the Parity Amendment  to be an appendage of the Philippine Constitution and he agreed to all the demands of the Americans in finalizing the Military Bases& Military Assistance  Agreements with the United States.  And for this, he was liberated and cleansed of the taint of collaboration.  President Roxas is well remembered as an  unabashed pro-American (amboy) and this  can be attributed to purely personal reasons rather than motivated by a commitment to the people’s supreme  welfare.  It is said that to his dying day he was grateful to his American imperialist benefactors.

The Parity Amendment  has since become  a template of reference in a code of conduct which has guided and directed all subsequent Presidents in  perpetuating a system of misrule  that is  premised on a system  of subservience to the interests  of the U.S.A.   In plain language this is  nothing more nor less than  shameless  puppetry—pagpapatuta..

But puppetry has always for its rewards the fruits of corruption.  And corruption proceeds from being beholden to the puppeteer who disposes the goods in exchange for far-reaching  economic benefits.  The continuing  commitment to abide by the Parity Rights serves as a constant pledge by every  Philippine political leadership to faithfully serve American imperialist interests.  Of course, this  inevitably engenders bureaucratic corruption.

Bureaucratic corruption is the abuse of power and unbridled license  to use official position for personal enrichment..    And nothing  puts this more succinctly than the rhetorical mouthful of Senator Avelino in declaiming  “What are we in power for?”  Thus has puppetry to US Imperialist  interests  consigned  our country to backwardness  and subjected our people to utter impoverishment.

It is good to listen to the great nationalist Claro M. Recto  who was a critical witness to the events that transpired during that historical masquerade.  He said:

“This parity clause, it need not be said, is grossly unfair.  This is indeed the  first instance in history where an independent nation has granted to citizens of another rights equal to those enjoyed by its own citizens.  

          “No other independent country in the world except ours has granted parity rights to the citizens of another.

          “Parity opens the door to foreign direct investment.  In fact,  foreign investment constitutes the very motivation for parity rights.”

The foresight  demonstrated  by the nationalist senator  finds its manifest  reality in our present situation.  The Filipino nation has always been at a disadvantaged position vis-à-vis the boundless benefits that accrue to the American monopoly capitalists who enjoy the mandate of the Parity Rights.  And yet, our current leadership,  not satisfied with being always  at the losing end of the bargain, intends to worsen the situation  by its surreptitious design of allowing  one-hundred percent foreign-owned corporations  to buy and own properties of our national patrimony.  Such abominable conspiratorial plot is unforgiveable.  But President Benigno S. Aquino III and his cohorts in Congress know no bounds in subjecting our nation to further extreme disadvantage which can only lead to a scenario of national disaster.

          Our country,  with the pro-imperialist policies followed by the current regime of President Aquino will gradually, if not drastically, fall into foreign hands.  And heaven knows what fate of ever-worsening poverty awaits  the  great masses of our people.  More than that, our political independence which has   actually been reduced to utter insignificance will become a big laughing stock in the community of nations.

It is however well to note that Manuel A. Roxas and all other supposed native Filipino leaders invariably used nationalist rhetoric in public  but deep in their hearts and minds have only their selves and their class interests.  All  generations of Filipino rulers have faithfully followed the model of hypocrisy and treachery perpetuated by the system of puppetry  to American imperialism starting from Roxas down to Quirino, Magsaysay, Garcia,  Macapagal, Marcos, and down to Cory Aquino, Ramos,  Estrada, Gloria and now Noynoy Aquino.

          In Philippine socio-political affairs,  US Imperialism begot two twins, namely: Puppetry and Corruption, and  Poverty and Underdevelopment.  

comments powered by Disqus