The Philippines' position is a product of half a millenia of Spanish Hispanization, 50 years of American control and 4 years of brutal Japanese occupation.
The current stasis of the Philippines cannot be blamed for our inability to rise above, rather, it is a psychological impact that is universal for any colonized state. The Philippines' position is unlike other countries in the region because nations that were colonized in the the ASEAN region were for a brief period of time and the level of Imperial assimilation was limited in those countries.
For example, in Vietnam, it was placed under French control in the mid 19th century when the Vietnamese Nguyen-Le dynasty was toppled over by French forces. Vietnam retains its strong confucian culture due to the fact that the country was under French control for less than a century; that and the fact that the French did not assimilate the colony socially. There were pockets of French cultural influence, but for the most part, Vietnam was kept as a French "Oriental" possession. For means of national pride and glory. France's acquisition of Vietnam and Cambodia and Laos was a game, a competition against English imperialism and presence in India, Malaya and northern Borneo.
Dutch control of Malacca and Java (present day Indonesia) was for economic means. Indonesia provided raw natural resources that fueled the industry of the Netherlands. The Netherlands had no intention of making its Asiatic colony into a 'Dutch' state. The relationship was simply laissez faire. An example of parasitic imperialism.
The Philippines is different. Spain did not conquer the Philippines for mere economics. On the contrary, the colonization of the Philippines actually cost the Spanish government thousands of gold pesetas in order to maintain defense, economic trade of the colony. The Philippines was discovered accidentally in that the Spanish regime wanted to find a way to reach the spice islands of Malaccas and rich ports of Cathay (China).
The Spaniards did not look to take resources from the Philippines, as during their arrival, there was little to no resources in the Philippines, beside her geographic location to China. Over time, the Spaniards realized the necessity to secure the Philippines in that christian evangelization became a prime directive by the Catholic Episcopacy, particularly during the reign of Emperor Philip II. Spain wanted the Philippines and had plans to make the archipelago into a provincia of the Empire. Forced assimilation was manifested, as in the designing of towns, villages, cities under Spanish design. All towns and cities were named in Spanish, all names of persons in the country were given Spanish names to properly tax citizens, christianity was promulgated and enforced. The Spanish presence in the Philippines transformed the country completely in terms of religious activity-catholicism, governmental types-hispanicana style, economic activity-encomienda style (landed estates), the development of an oligarchy (principales, gobernadorcillos) and the landed peasantry who worked. Hundreds of Spanish friars came to the Philippines under direct order from the Spanish Episcopacy and Vatican Ecclesiasy. They built hundreds of churches, throughout the archipelago with the goal of christianizing the islands. Transformation was mandated.
This is why we have this so called 'colonial' mentality. We were taught to think in one particular way; to see ourselves not as Filipinos, but members of a greater Spanish Empire.
When a state is under a system for almost half a millenia, these effects are only natural. Think about it, we have only been independent for 60 some years. We were under the control of Spain for 400 years.
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